320 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



formation of the upper bed of tufa [viz. that which is 60 or 80 feet 

 thick]. 



" The place in which we found the bones extends 8 or 9 feet from 

 right to left, and probably goes further to the left in that place, where 

 the stratum of gravel passes along the roof of the gravel-pit ; but there 

 it was inaccessible. We did not dig anywhere above 3 feet into the 

 bank, being afraid of bringing down the rock above by undermining it. 

 It appears certain that the bones were brought there, along with the 

 pebbles, loose, as bones, not in carcasses, for they lie scattered together 

 without the least connexion ; and their number is so great, compared 

 to the space they occupy, that there would not have been room for so 

 many bodies. 



" Their nature is various, and indicates the presence of at least five or 

 six distinct kinds of land-animals, and among the rest, two individuals 

 of the human species. — J. Hall." 



" This hill [Hunter proceeds to say] must have been formed before the 

 Romans took possession of this place, and probably by the formation of 

 the hill. The Tiber made its way in this direction, for it cuts the hill 

 across. This is probably the only instance met with of human bones 

 being in such a state 1 . But in future ages, when the present rivers may 



1 [Flint-weapons, called ' celts,' unquestionably fashioned by human hands, have 

 been discovered in stratified gravel, containing remains of the mammoth, in the 

 valley of the Somme, near Abbeville and Amiens, at different periods, from the year 

 1847 (Boucher de Perthes, 'Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes,' Paris, 1849) to 

 the present time. These evidences of the human species have been extracted from 

 the deposit in question, by Mr. Prestwich, 17 feet from the surface in undisturbed 

 ground (Proceedings of the Royal Society, May 26, 1859), by Mr. Flower, at 20 feet 

 from the surface in a compact mass of gravel (' Times, November 18th, 1859), by M. 

 Gaudry ('LTnstitut,' October 5th, 1859), and by M. G. Pouchet, all with their own 

 hands, in the course of the year 1859. Besides the Elephas primigenius, remains of Rhi- 

 noceros tichorhinus, Cerinis somonensis, Ursus spel<eus, and of a large extinct bovine 

 animal have been found in the same bed of gravel. Mr. Prestwich, after a careful study 

 of the geological relations of this bed, refers it to the post-pliocene age, and to a period 

 "anterior to the surface assuming its present outline, so far as some of its minor 

 features are concerned." 



Similar flint-weapons had been previously discovered by Mr. John Frere, F.R..S. 

 ('Archfeologia,' vol. xiii. "An Accoimt of Flint-weapons discovered at Hoxne in Suf- 

 folk," 1800), in a bed of flint-gravel, 16 feet below the surface, probably of the same 

 geological age as that in the valley of the Somme. 



Flint-weapons have been discovered mixed indiscriminately with the bones of 

 the extinct cave-bear and rhinoceros ; one in particular was met with beneath a fine 

 antler of a rein-deer and a bone of the cave- bear, imbedded in the superficial stalag- 

 mite, in the bone-cave at Brixham, during the careful exploration of that cave, 

 conducted by a committee of the Geological Society of London, in 1859. 



Dr. Falconer has communicated (Proceedings of the Geological Society, June 

 22, 1859) the results of Ms examination of ossiferous caves in Palermo, and, in respect 



