262 TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 
followed, in the southern flank of the cone, on a surface of more than 
15,000 square feet, it was from four to six inches in thickness, (twelve 
to eighteen centimetres) and was formed at a depth of four feet, (more 
exactly 1°14 metres, measured to the base of the layer) under the 
present surface of the cone. It dated from the Roman epoch, for it 
contained fragments of: Roman tile, and there was found a Roman 
coin much defaced, but appearing to be anterior to the lower empire. 
The second layer of ancient earth was followed in the southern flank 
of the cone, on a surface of about 25,000 square feet, it was six 
inches thick, and was found at ten feet (more exactly at 2°97 metres, 
measured to the base of the layer) under the present surface of the 
soil. It afforded some fragments of pottery not varnished, and tweez- 
ers in melted bronze, characteristic by its style of the age of bronze.. 
The third of these layers of ancient earth was exposed to view in the 
southern flank of the cone, on a surface of about 3,500 square feet ; it 
was from six to seven inches thick, and was nineteen feet (more exact- 
ly 5°69 metres) under the present surface of the soil. It furnished 
fragments of very coarse pottery, of charcoal, bruised bones of animals, 
evidently the remains of repasts, and a human skeleton whose skull * 
was very round, very small, and remarkably thick, presenting the 
Mongol type. 
This third layer can only be referred to the age of stone, although 
we have not had the good fortune of meeting a stone-axe, or anything 
of that kind, Let us note, that on one point of the southern flank of 
the cone, some charcoal was again found in a layer of gravel, a foot lower 
than the layer of vegetable earth of the age of stone; that is to say, 
twenty feet (more exactly at 6:09 metres) in depth, under the present. 
soil. Let us note further, that under the layer of earth of the Roman 
epoch, there presented itself no trace of brick or tile. This is not 
without interest, when we know that the art of baking brick and tile 
was imported by the Romans to this country. Towards the centre of 
the cone, in the most elevated part of the cist or trench, the three 
layers in question disappear,—natutally, for it is here that the torrent 
has always had the greatest force, and that it has deposited the coars- 
est materials, comprehending round blocks about three feet in diameter, 
such as we see in the bed of the torrent. The more the terrent devi- 
ated to the right or the left of the central region of its delta, the smaller 
* We learn that this skull was examined, measured. and determined, by J. M. P. Montagu, 
Esq., well known in the scientific circles of Montreal, some fourteen years back. 
