268 S. H. Soworth — A Great Post-Glacial Flood. 



the great diluvial cataclysm wliich gave its present configuration to 

 the country, and of which M. Belgrand has proved the existence " 

 {id. 71). 



Before we cross the Channel into England, it will not be inoppor- 

 tune to glance for a moment at the loamy deposits of South Kussia, 

 which, as we have seen, correspond to the Diluvium of the French 

 writers. These deposits, which are found especially about the Sea of 

 Azof and the Black Sea, are thus referred to by Murchison. 



" In all the Central and Southern parts of European Eussia," he 

 says, " it is evident that such alluvium (i.e. deposit in South Eussia 

 containing Mammoths' remains) has been the result of currents of 

 water, for it is piled up, and often tumultuously, in great thicknesses, 

 and constitutes the chief banks of most of the streams, as well as 

 the covering of numerous plateaux " (op. cit. p. 501). 



Speaking of the deposits about Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, 

 Murchison says this Mammoth drift is just as completely separated 

 from any deposit resulting from existing agency, as the auriferous 

 detritus and coarse clays on the sides of the Ural hills, or as the 

 high mud-banks forming the cliffs of the great Siberian rivers and 

 estuaries, for it covers the whole of the coast plateau, the present 

 adjacent river Krinka and the Sea of Azof being 100 feet beneath 

 it. In truth, like similar drift over wide spaces of Central and 

 Southern Russia, it is distributed at various levels, and most clearly 

 indicates considerable submergence at the period when these animals 

 were destroyed (id. p. 502). 



The problem on this side of the Channel is exactly parallel. We 

 have in the Brick-earths of South Britain a repetition of what has 

 been stated in regard to the Limon of Belgium. In some cases, as 

 in the Thames Valley, it lies in situ, and largely undisturbed, 

 answering to the diluvium gris of the French writers, with the 

 same contents and the same general features. Elsewhere, as over 

 large districts in Kent and Sussex, it is spread as a finely sifted 

 mantle over the high ground, answering completely to the Limon 

 des plateaux of the Belgians. Let us first consider the Brick-earths 

 found in the valleys such as that of the Thames. In regard to their 

 contents, there is really no sensible difference between these deposits 

 and that of the diluvium gris. In both cases the skeletons of mammals 

 have been found entire, and the following graphic description by 

 Mr. Boyd Dawkins of what was discovered at Ilford reads in effect 

 like the similar descriptions at Cannstadt, etc. Speaking of the 

 Uphall pit he says : " At the top there was the surface soil from 

 one to three feet deep, then an irregularly stratified layer of brick- 

 earth and gravel six feet, and lastly an irregular layer of flint 

 gravel, underneath which was a fine reddish-grey sandy loam, four 

 feet thick. All these had been cleared away, leaving a platform 

 exposed, on which was a most remarkable accumulation of bones 

 carefully left in situ by the workmen. On the right hand was a 

 huge tusk of a Mammoth eight feet long, with the spiral curvature 

 undisturbed by the pressure of the superadjacent strata. Across it 

 lay a remarkably fine antler of Eed Deer. At a little distance was 



