Revieics — TloworWs Mammoth and the Flood. 477 



it is easier to find vertebrae of a gigantic Lizard of th e Trias than 

 bones of a self-dead Seal, Walrus, or Bird," or that in the forests of 

 Ceylon remains of Elephant are rai'elj'^ if ever found, simply show 

 that conditions for the preservation of the bones did not locally exist. 

 At Lyme Kegis it would be easier to find Saurian remains in the 

 Lias, than Mammoth bones in the old gravels of the neighbouring 

 valleys, or than remains of Bear, Wolf, and species of animals 

 still existing, in the more recent Alluvial deposits. We should be 

 surprised rather than otherwise to find bones preserved on the 

 surface " in subaerial layers," excepting those bones which have 

 been buried, and it is far from strange " that the plough, in cutting 

 through virgin soil," seldom meets with them. Throughout the 

 history of all our stratified rocks fossils are more abundant at 

 particular spots even in the same stratum, just as we find recent 

 shells abundantly on our beaches at some localities, while they are 

 absent at others. Mr. Howorth might visit many a section in our 

 older Thames Valley deposits and return home without any osteological 

 reward ; and he might meet with similar experience in searching for 

 bones in the Norwich Crag, or even in the Cromer Forest Bed. 



In other instances bones are locally very abundant, and sometimes 

 represent animals in various stages of growth. This again is quite 

 natural, for land-animals that die of old age would, as a rule, perish 

 in situations where their bones would not be preserved. We are, 

 however, quite disposed to agree with the author when he maintains 

 that " The occurrence of immense caches in which the remains of 

 many species of wild animals are incongruously mixed together 

 pell-mell, often on high ground, seems unaccountable, save on the 

 theory that they were driven to take shelter together on some point 

 of vantage, in view of an advancing flood of water, a position which 

 is paralleled by the great floods which occur occasionally in the 

 tropics, where we find the tiger and its victims all collecting together 

 on some dry place, and reduced to a common condition of timidity 

 and helplessness by a flood which has overwhelmed the flat country." 

 Most of the Pleistocene Mammalia found in this country have 

 been obtained in deposits that occur in caverns or in the drainage 

 areas of modern rivers ; and we dispute the statement, that in many 

 places in this country, " we find the caches of bones in positions 

 entirely out of the reach of any possible rivers or river-floods." 

 Nor is it generally the case that the beds in which Palgeolithic imple- 

 ments occur are found in situations where no river flows, and where 

 no river that we can postulate as possible ever could have flowed. 



These dogmatic statements are certainly inconsistent with the 

 general tenor of the author's remarks, and we hope in his second 

 volume he will not be led to quote exceptional and disputed cases 

 in support of his particular views. 



From the facts brought before us in this volume, we cannot discern 

 any immediate connection between the accumulations formed by the 

 direct agency of ice, such as the widespread deposits of Boulder- 

 clay and the entombment of the various Pleistocene mammalia. 

 And this view is in concord with Mr. Ho worth's statement (p. 100) 

 that " Speaking roughly, remains of the Mammoth are absent or 



