E. H. Hoicorth—A Great Post- Glacial Flood. 227 



is found almost entirely in the valleys where subaerial deposits 

 are naturally developed on the largest scale, and where they are 

 least disturbed, and not distributed over the high ground, where such 

 deposits are naturally scarce, and where, when they occur, w^e 

 generally postulate that they are not indigenous, but imported. 



The diluvium rouge, on the other hand, is found, not only covering 

 the diluvium gris, but also distributed independently of the drainage 

 and of the river-courses, and covering the higher ground and the 

 plateaux where it often lies immediately on the subjacent rocks. 

 In Pioardy and Northern France, and in Belgium, we have again 

 a complete parallel with this. We have in the valleys an undis- 

 turbed deposit called indifferently diluvium gris or diluvium des 

 vallees ; while superimposed upon it, and also stretching beyond its 

 limits far away over hill iiud dale, exactly like the diluvium rouge, 

 we have the mantle of surface loam called Limon de Hesbaye, 

 Limon des plateaux, etc. M. d'Acy has recently written a most 

 elaborate and learned essay on this deposit, entitled " Le Limon des 

 Plateaux du Nord de la France." With the views he maintains so 

 ingeniously, and with such a fund of evidence, I most completely 

 agree. He shows that this "Limon" is perfectly continuous with 

 the diluvium gris, that it corresponds precisely with the diluvium 

 rouge, and that its mode of distribution can only be explained by 

 a great inundation. I shall revert to his memoir presently. Mean- 

 while, I would reaffirm what I have already urged, that the loamy 

 deposits of Central Europe, where we can examine them, present 

 two distinct forms of deposition. One, in situ, known as diluvium 

 gris, diluvium des vallees, etc., equivalent to the Brick-earths of the 

 Thames Valley. The other, the diluvium rouge, limon des plateaux, 

 upland loam or trail, having all the appearance of being greatly 

 disturbed. I shall endeavour to show that the cause of this disturb- 

 ance was the same whose traces we have met with in the other 

 parts of this inquiry, namely, a widespread inundation. 



Ln regai'd to the stratum in situ, I would confine myself to one 

 argument only, drawn from the discontinuous nature of this deposit. 

 If there had not been some denuding agency at work on a large 

 and wide scale since this stratum was deposited, we should assuredly 

 have found it still remaining in a continuous layer in the valley's, 

 but this is not so. Nothing is more familiar than the disjunct 

 character of the patches of Brick-earth which are found in the valleys 

 of South Britain. The same is the case with the diluvium gris in 

 France. These patches and local seams are the mere remnant 

 which has not been denuded. What possible cause was competent 

 to break up and disintegrate this once continuous mantle of loam, 

 and to leave these debris of it still remaining ? The Grlacial period 

 had passed by long before. Besides, glaciers or ice in any shajie would 

 have scooped out the whole of these soft deposits, if it had passed 

 over them and ground them and their contents to uniform mud, to 

 be deposited elsewhere ; but there is not a fragment of direct 

 evidence, so far as we know, of glacial conditions having survived 

 to this period. A great rush of waters would effectually wash away 



