234 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



IX.) of some of the more noted hypotheses which have been 

 advanced to explain the phenomena. The old lacustrine theory 

 has been generally abandoned, and the view advocated by Lyell 

 has likewise proved insufficient. It is quite clear, in fact, that 

 the theory, which shall ultimately be accepted, must take 

 cognisance of all the more widely-spread loamy deposits de- 

 scribed in Chapter IX. We cannot have a special explanation 

 for the loss and lehm of each particular region. They evidently 

 pertain to one and the same period, and must owe their origin 

 to some widely-acting cause or causes. They occur in so 

 many different regions that we are precluded from supposing 

 that elevations and depressions of the land can have had any- 

 thing to do with their formation. Do they owe their origin 

 then to aqueous action, or can they be the result of great dust- 

 storms as Baron von Eichthofen maintains? The former of 

 these views appears to me to harmonise most closely with the 

 evidence, and the great bulk of the loamy deposits I would 

 assign in common with the majority of glacialists to the action 

 of vast inundations. I do not, however, deny that here and 

 there the loss and other aqueous deposits pertaining to the 

 Glacial Period may have been subsequently modified by the 

 action of wind, but I can find no evidence which would lead me 

 to suppose that any of our widely-spread sheets of loss have 

 been accumulated by storms of wind transporting the finely- 

 sifted materials from dry central regions. Some of the principal 

 objections which may be urged against Eichthofen's theory I shall 

 presently specify, but, meanwhile, what I take to be the actual 

 origin of the loamy deposits will first be set forth, and as shortly 

 as possible. 



According to Mi*. Prestwich there are cogent reasons for 

 believing that the loam of the plateaux and upper slopes of the 

 valleys of Northern France have been laid down contempo- 

 raneously with the high-level gravels. The loams in question 

 are in short flood-deposits, which were accumulated at a time 

 when the rivers flowed at a much higher level than they did in 

 subsequent ages. I believe the same rule holds true for all the 



