Correspondence — Mr. C. E. De Ranee. 287 



rocks of the central plateau of France, through Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic and 

 Cretaceous strata. The last mentioned are chiefly limestones, nearly horizontal, pre- 

 senting steep and often high cliffs, either washed by the river, or bordering its broader 

 and older v;illey. The softer bands of limestone have been hollowed out along the 

 valley by frost and water, and here and tliere present recesses and caves. These, 

 in several instances, have been artificially enlarged, and in very many cases have 

 afforded shelter to pre-historic people, and still retain lie:ips of bones and hearth-stuff, 

 with flint implements of numerous kinds, carved bones, antlers, and occasionally 

 human bones. The most common bones and antlers are those of the Reindeer, which 

 must have abounded in Southern France, whether remaining all the year round, or 

 migrating from plain to mountain and back again in their season, for the cave-folk 

 killed them of all ages in vast numbers. The cold climate necessary for the Reindeer 

 has long passed away ; the Musk Ox and the Hairy Mammoth disappeared also with 

 the Reindeer ; and, looking at the great changes in geograpliical outlines and contours 

 that have taken place since the extinction of the European Mammoth, the author 

 thought that some eight or nine thousand years would not be too long for the bring- 

 ing about of such changes. That the old Cave-folk of Pe'rigord saw the living 

 Mammoth, a lively outline-sketch of its peculiar and shaggy form on apiece of ivory, 

 found in the Madelaine Cave, is satisfactory evidence. The special geology of the 

 district, the characters of tb'e several caves and their contents, and the most striking 

 of the implements of stone and bone, were described in this paper; the human 

 remains found at Cro-Magnon, a gigantic chief and his more ordinary companions, 

 were specially treated of; and the high probability of their belonging to the same 

 race of men as the older Cave-folk was discussed at some length. 



ooI^I^.:Es:F'0^iTZDEI^^o:E. 



THE LOWER SCROBIOULARIA AND LOWER CYCLAS CLAYS OF 

 THE MERSEY AND RIBBLE.i 



Sir,— On the 14lh of Nov., 1871, Mr. T. M. Eeacle read a paper 

 at the Geo]ogical Society of Liverpool, " On the Geology and 

 Physics of the Post-Glacial Period," of which an abstract was given 

 in Nature of December 28 (vol. v., p. 175), and a rechauffe by Mr. 

 Eeade in the Geol. Mag. for March, 1872 (Vol. IX., p. Ill), in which 

 month my " Explanation of Map 90 N.E." was published, which 

 contains a description of Lower Scrobicularia Clay at Crossens, in 

 Lancashire ; from which it will be seen that it is impossible for me 

 to have first learned of such a clay in that county from Mr. Eeade's 

 papers, as he suggests, as no reference is made to it in the Abstract in 

 Nature, and my " Explanation " was then in the press, which latter 

 was written from notes made previously to my leaving South-west 

 Lancashire, in December, 1868. And in point of fact, I never saw 

 his paper until the present year, he not having favoured me with a 

 reprint, in return for those of my own (sent at his request), and for 

 replies to his letters asking for information. 



Mr. Eeade charges me with inaccuracy, because certain thin clays, 

 with Scrobicularia}, one to twenty feet in thickness, never cropping to 

 the surface, and overlaid by from ten to seventy feet of still newer 

 deposits, which he has discovered in his draining operations, near 

 the coast (carried out since I left the district), are not shown on the 

 maps. I reply that, even were the ' Lower Scrobicularia Clay ' a 

 surface-soil, it could not be separated from the ' Lower Gi/clas Clay,' 



1 This correspondence must now terminate. — Ed. Geol. Mag. 



