CAUSE FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE TRADITION OF THE FLOOD. 2G5 



being the result of a sudden and transient catastrophe, they 

 result from the long continued and gradual action of known 

 agencies, and represent the work of a long period of time. 



The Rubble-Drift.* 



Nevertheless, it became evident to me, in the course of 

 studying the Drift beds of the South of England and the North 

 of France, that, besides the Drifts referable to known causes, 

 there was a residue which could not be referred to any of 

 the causes generally assigned for the formation of these 

 deposits. Such was also the conclusion which Sir lloderick 

 i\lurchisont was led to form, though he failed to eliminate some 

 of the recognized valley-Drifts, and ascribed them generally 

 to a wave of translation. More lately Professor James GeikieJ 

 has expressed a similar opinion. Speaking of certain accumu- 

 lations of coarse gravels and detritus which have yielded mam- 

 malian remains and pala3o]ithic implements, he remarks that 

 they are spread continuously over wide districts in Southern 

 England, and bear little or no relation to the present 

 drainage S3^stems of the country, and could not have been 

 laid down by ordinary river action. In explanation of these 

 deposits Professor Geikie adopts a suggestion of Darwin's — 

 that their origin is to be attributed to the cold and snow of 

 the Glacial period. Though it seems to me that in both 

 cases reference is made to other drifts besides the Rubble- 

 drift, and our explanations differ, still the essential fact 

 remains of the recognition of an aberrant form of drift. 



This Rubble-drift, as I have named it, is distinguished by 

 a general want of that icear and rounding of the rock fragments, 

 and of the included organic remains, which characterise the 

 fluviatile and marine drifts, while none of the materials are 

 glaciated, nor are any of them dxinsported from beyond t/ie 

 immediate vicinity of tJie place of their occurrence, as is the case 

 with beds of glacial origin. 



* I gave a short notice of this Drift in the South of England at the 

 meeting of the British Asaociatiou in Swansea in 1880, but fuller details 

 will be found in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. 

 xlviii, p. 326, while I have since described in the PhilosopUical Transactions 

 for the Royal Society for 1893, p. 903, some of the chief localities where it 

 occurs on the Continent. 



t Quart. Journ. O'eol. Sac, vol. vii, p. 340. 



J Prehistoric IJurope, p. 140, 



T 2 



