8 Notes and Comments. 



the extreme hardness of the boulder clay, which necessitated 

 the continued use of picks in getting it up. (2). There was 

 not the slightest sign of any mixing of the soils (such as would 

 occur in an old grave), the boulder clay resting normally 

 on the underlying glacial sand as it does in all sections known 

 to us where the succession of the beds is the same.' 



THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 



And now we come to Mr. J. Reid Moir's geological work. He 

 says " Let us suppose that this man, whose remains we have 

 found, was wandering over the sandy land surface, and was over- 

 come with the cold. If this were the case he would lie down, 

 curl himself up for warmth, and eventually get covered by the 

 sand as it was blown by the wind. This supposition is 

 borne out by the fact of the contracted position in which the 

 body was found, and also as the climate was fast degenerating 

 into glacial conditions, it is certain very low temperatures 

 were present. There also seems no doubt that when the 

 boulder clay was first deposited, there was a very much greater 

 thickness of it than is seen now. The melting of the ice-sheet 

 which laid it down would cause a lot of denudation, and during 

 the ages which have been passed since the ice finally disappeared 

 the same process has been continually going on." .... 



HOW THE YOUNG MAN DIED. 



" Now if this man was lying on this glacial sand, and was 

 covered by the boulder clay, we can be sure that as the clay 

 became decalcified, the human bones would also disappear 

 by the same process. This is exactly what happened. The 

 skeleton was found lying partly embedded in glacial sand and 

 partly in boulder clay. The glacial sand underlying the clay 

 in both sections is highly calcareous. Tin's condition could 

 not possibly be present if at any time the clay had been denuded 

 and re-deposited, because the water which would accompany 

 any such phenomena would dissolve out the chalk from the 

 underlying sand. There can, I think, be no doubt that the 

 material under which the bones were lying is the undisturbed, 

 though eroded and partly decalcified, base of the chalky boulder 

 clay formation." 



EXPERT REPORTS. 



One well-known geologist, a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 thinks there is no doubt that the pit shows a ' junction section 

 of the boulder clay with the underlying sand and gravel, but 

 he fails ' to understand how man could have lived at the time 

 of the commencement of the Boulder Clay.' Another geologist, 

 a Professor, guardedly states that he is ' unable to distinguish 

 a thin mass of such a clay from true boulder clay.' Dr. Arthur 

 Keith, whose work among the bones of early man is well known 

 to our readers, also gives a report, in which he says, ' If Mr. 



Naturalist, 



