Correspondence — Mr. Robert Craig, 487 



north bank for one hundred yards westward; it is seen again dipping 

 under the stratified beds — the cLay that overlies the stratified bed is 

 of a reddisli, or as Mr. Geikie describes it, "dark brown" colour mixed 

 with sand and gravel, and is altogether freer than the under clay. 



To account for these stratified beds, Mr. Geikie supposes that 

 " one large lake," or more probably a series of small lakes, may 

 once have occupied the area between Caldwell and tlie place where 

 the fossil remains of the great ox were obtained." This surmise is 

 most likely correct ; yet it is doubtful if a glacier passed up the 

 valley after the deposit of the stratified beds. They have no appear- 

 ance of being disturbed by land-ice having passed over them. Into 

 this I do not enter, it is enough to point out that these upper beds 

 are distinct from the true " Till," and may belong to deposits long 

 posterior to it. 



Section op North Bank, where Bos primigenius was found. 



a. Lower Boulder-clay. 



b. Stratified bed of fine mud, or clay, free from stones. 



c. Clay with sand and gravel. 



X Place where the fossil was found. ^ 



Robert Craig. 

 Langside, Beith, September 10, 1868. 



OBIa?-c^.A.I^■^. 



M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 



On the 2nd of August last, at the ripe age of 79 years, there 

 passed away from among us Monsieur Jacques Boucher de Crevecoeur 

 de Perthes, Officer of the Legion of Honour, President of the Imperial 

 Society of Emulation of Abbeville, a member of numerous learned 

 societies, and a Foreign Correspondent of the Geological Society. 



Throughout the whole of the civilized world there are few 

 names better known than that of M. Boucher de Perthes, who in the 

 present day must be regarded as the first person who directed public 

 attention to those early works of man, the flint implements imbedded 

 in the Post Pliocene gravels of our river valleys. Without detract- 

 ing from the merits of Dr. Ceselli, of Rome, or of our own country- 

 man, Mr. Prere, it must be confessed on all hands that to Boucher 

 de Perthes and his labours is due the first impetus which was given 

 to the study of the Antiquity of Man, which within the last few 

 years has made such rapid progress, and which has enlisted the 

 energies of so many votaries of science. 



His Antiquites Celtiques et Antcdiluviennes, printed in 1847, and 

 published in 1849, will always be regarded as the starting point of 



1 The fossil was found on the top of the stratified bed, and could not be more than 

 four feet from the suiface. 



