OF MOULIN-QUIGNON. 623 



intrinsic evidence, were. I have since carefully reviewed the 

 facts and opinions set forth in the ' proces-verbaux,'' and sub- 

 mitted to the closest examination the numerous suspected 

 flint haches, yielded by the ' black seam ' and ferruginous 

 gravel of Moulin-Quignon immediately before the Confer- 

 ence and while it sat there ; and the result is an irresistible 

 impression, that there is some mysterious complication in 

 the case which remains to be solved. M. Edie de Beaumont, 

 on the occasion when the notes on the conclusions arrived at 

 by the Conference were communicated, on the 18th May, to 

 the 'Academy of Sciences,' by M. Mime-Edwards and M. 

 de Quatrefages, insisted that there was a fundamental error 

 in the view taken of the age of the Moulin-Quignon beds. 

 He denied that they belonged to the Terrain Erratique, or 

 Diluvium properly so called, but regarded them as 'depots 

 meubles sur des pentes,' or superficial modern deposits, of the 

 age of the peat-beds, in which he would not be surprised if 

 human bones and industrial objects were found (' Comptes 

 Rendus,' 18 Mai, p. 936). At the next following meeting of 

 the Academy, held on the 25th ultimo, the same distin- 

 guished geologist is stated to have maintained that these 

 beds were not of an age exceeding that of the Lacustrine 

 habitations of the Swiss Lakes, that they might even corres- 

 pond with certain peat-beds, below which the vestiges of old 

 Roman roads had been met with ; and that he would not be 

 astonished if the Moulin-Quignon deposits were found to 

 contain ' Gallo-Roman coins.' 



This opinion, if it could be sustained, would appear at 

 first sight to furnish a ready explanation of the contradictory 

 complications of the case. But in reality it does not, for the 

 question is reduced by the evidence to a much narrower 

 issue. I have already dwelt upon the absolutely modern 

 appearance of the suspected flint haches, so numerous and so 

 uniform in their character, their rude form, iron- struck 

 facets, high ridges, sharp unworn edges, and fresh unstained 

 surfaces. Had they been yielded by a bed of peat it is con- 

 ceivable that these signs of freshness might have been re- 

 tained for an indefinite time ; but, with our present lights, 

 is it conceivable that they should have remained for fifteen 

 or eighteen centuries in a highly-ferruginous bed of gravel, 

 freely permeable to water, where every large flint is stained, 

 as a natural result, with iron, and that they should have 

 invariably escaped, even where their substance is whitish and 

 highly porous ? Or could they have remained in the ' black 

 seam ' imiforrnly without staining or incrustation, while the 

 flints around them are covered with dendrites? Again, as 

 regards the human jaw. I have stated in the preceding 



