OF MOULIN-QUIGNON. 603 



April 9th. On April 16th it was communicated to the Royal 

 Society, and on the 19th to the Academy of Sciences. On 

 April 25th the authenticity of the jaw and haches was contro- 

 verted in the ' Times.' On May 9th the Conference opened 

 at Paris, and it closed at Abbeville on the 13th. On May 18th 

 M. Milne-Edwards and M. de Quatrefages severally commu- 

 nicated notes to the Academy of Sciences, on the results at 

 which the Conference had arrived. The ink with which the 

 convention was signed was hardly dry when M. de Beaumont 

 struck at the whole fabric a blow, ' qui semble enlever toute 

 valeur scientifique a la machoire dont on s'est tant occupe.' 

 At that meeting of the Academy, this eminent geological 

 authority refused to admit that the Moulin-Quignon gravels 

 were older than the modern period. He referred them to the 

 age of the Peat-beds of the Valley of the Somme, in which 

 human skeletons with implements of stone and iron abound ; 

 and at the next following meeting of the Academy, when he 

 resumed the subject, he stated that a corresponding peat- 

 bed covered the remains of an ancient Roman way in the 

 Departement du Nord. 



That 'le cercle de la discussion relative au gisement de 

 Moulin-Quignon est peut-etre bien loin d'etre epuise,' is 

 clear from the next incident in the order of events. At the 

 meeting of the Academy held on May 25, M. Hebert, in a 

 review of the opinions advanced by M. de Beaumont, as- 

 signed a different geological position to these beds, which he 

 removes from the ancient Quaternary deposits of the Valley 

 of the Somme, such as Menchecourt and St. Acheul, placing 

 them two stages even above the Loess, but below the Peat- 

 bed alluvia, while Mr. Prestwich, in a recent communication 

 to the Geological Society, after a fresh survey of the field, 

 maintains his original opinion that the Moulin- Quignon beds 

 belong to the ' high level' gravels, or oldest Quaternary de- 

 posits of the Somme, formed immediately after the exca- 

 vation of the valley began. We have thus three different 

 phases of opinion by competent authorities on the geological 

 age of the beds, and it is difficult to conceive the divergency 

 being carried further, or of more being entertained, respect- 

 ing the case. 



The contested haches of the couche noire have not fared 

 better. Accepted at last by the great majority of the Con- 

 ference as authentic, they have been severely assailed in a 

 communication addressed to the ' Athenseum ' on June 2, by 

 Mr. John Evans, who, unable to be present at the Conference, 

 to which he was invited, paid a fresh visit to Abbeville at 

 the end of last month, in order to reinvestigate the circum- 

 stances of that part of the case. He contends that the sus- 



