TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 263. 
were the materials which it deposited on the two inclines of its cone; 
and the more easily could a layer of earth formed on the surface, 
after the preceding great inundations, remain in its place and be 
hidden under new alluvium ; whilst towards the centre of the delta or 
cone, it must have been swept away by the violence of the water: 
Likewise, we further found in the gravel of the southern incline of the 
cone, at a point where the layer of earth of the age of bronze had dis- 
appeared, but still at ten feet in depth under the present surface, a 
hatchet in bronze, oxydised, and a bronze axe well preserved, which 
had not been rolled; the weight of these two objects would have made 
them remain in this place, whilst the carth which surrounded them 
apparently had been carried over by the torrent. If the three layers 
-of ancient carth in question thus disappeared on one side, as they 
approached the centre of the cone, they re-appeared symmetrically on 
the other side, in the southern flank. "They were never at a greater 
depth under the present surface ; for the torrent, as we have seen, has 
concentred its alluvium on this incline, but they were always parallel 
to each other, and the vertical distances which separated the one from 
the other, were sensibly the same as on the other side of the centre, 
in the southern incline of the cone. There was, thus, in the northern 
flank of the cone, six feet in depth of the Roman layer, sufficiently 
thin at this point, based on the layer of the age of bronze, and 
ten feet in depth, of this latter, on the layer of the age of stone; we 
could not be mistaken in the layers, and take one for the other. That 
of the age of stone was too little interrupted in the centre, for it to be 
possible to mistake the direction it was necessary to take to find it 
again. The layer of the age of bronze was interrupted to a greater 
extent, but it could be distinguished in the two sides by its par- 
ticular character. It was formed of a bluish clayey earth, resembling 
in appearance blue frozen mud, and bounded towards its upper and 
lower limits, by more sandy zones, coloured yellow by hydroxyde of 
iron and producing the effect of two layers, encasing between them 
the bluish bed ; it was remarkable and indicates some particular cause. 
The deposit of the age of stone occasionally presented an analogous 
appearance ; but it was only in spots, and not with the continuity of 
the age of bronze. As to the Roman layer of the northern side, it 
was known only by its height above the stratum of the age of bronze; 
no fragments of Roman tiles were found, but it was here only 
observed for a limited extent, in a length of about forty feet ; whilst 
