1863.] PHESTWICH MOULIN QTTIGNON. 505 



Quaternary or Post-pliocene period, that they are older than the 

 Menchecourt deposits, and that they date before the excavation of 

 the Valley of the Sonime. Nor is the question of the contemporaneity 

 of Man with these particular beds affected by any conclusions that 

 may be arrived at relative to this recent inquiry. Whatever diversity 

 of opinion there may be respecting certain Flint Implements, others, 

 the genuineness of which cannot be questioned, have been found 

 from time to time during the last fifteen years, both in the Moulin- 

 Quignon pit and, in more considerable numbers, in the adjacent and 

 equivalent beds of the " Champ de Mars " and St. Gilles, which place 

 beyond dispute the occurrence, in situ, of Flint Implements shaped 

 by early Man in these, amongst the oldest of the high-level gravels 

 of the ancient Valley of the Somme. 



Note. — Further and more deliberate inquiry, on the part of myself 

 and others, than was possible on the occasion of the conference at 

 Abbeville, leads me now to revert to my original opinion, and to be- 

 lieve that we were mistaken in concluding on that occasion that no 

 fraud had been practised. In addition to the objections originally 

 urged, I found, on washing a portion of the gravel containing the 

 Flint Implements (an experiment contemplated but unaccountably 

 omitted in May last), the discordance between the mineral condition 

 of the flint fragments and the Flint Implements to be so great as to 

 render it evident that the two could not possibly have been subjected 

 during the same time to the same influences. Further, instead of 

 being confined to a special bed and a special level, we found, on a 

 subsequent visit, that specimens had been brought by the men from 

 Epargnette (a bed on a yet higher level and hitherto unproductive) ; 

 and, again, we were given, at Mautort, at a low -level valley- gravel- 

 pit, three Flint Implements of precisely the same type and in the 

 same condition as those of Moulin Quignon ; whilst, from the indica- 

 tions given by the men, the specimens would have been taken from 

 a bed of gravel subordinate to the Loess, and not even part of the 

 mass of fluviatile low-level gravel. Our verdict in this case respect- 

 ing the Flint Implements (leaving apart the question of the jaw) 

 will, therefore, I fear, have to be reconsidered. The precautions we 

 took seemed to render imposition on the part of the workmen im- 

 possible ; still, although it remains undetected, I cannot, with the 

 strong and increased doubts (not one of them since removed) attached 

 to the point, continue to accept the authenticity of these specimens. 

 The essential fact, however, of the occurrence of genuine Flint Im- 

 plements at Moulin Quignon, the Champ de Mars, and Menchecourt 

 receives additional confirmation from every fresh investigation, and 

 places M. Boucher de Perthes's important original discovery beyond 

 all doubt.— [J. P., Oct. 1863.] 



VOL. XIX. PART I. 2 M 



