221 



face of Ireland (see a paper ^' On the River Valleys of the South of 

 Ireland" in the Q. J. Geol. Soc.," vol. xviii., 1862). Among the fossils 

 found in these fresh-water gravels there are many land and fresh-water 

 shells, all of existing species, and nearly all still living in Prance, some 

 ranging as far south as the south of Erance ; but others, and those the 

 majority, spreading more to the north, and as far north as Finland. 

 There are also found fragments of the woolly elephant, or mammoth (^JEle- 

 pTias primigenius), the woolly rhinoceros {Rhin. ticTiorhinus), the ancient 

 ox {Bos priscus), the reindeer, an extinct species of hippopotamus, and 

 others.^' 



There are also in certain spots numerous flint implements and wea- 

 pons to be found, evidently fashioned by the hands of an early race of 

 men, who were contemporaneous with these animals. Those now on the 

 table, which I was lucky enough to secure by purchase from the work- 

 men and their children, must not be taken as examples of the best spe- 

 cimens that have been got, except one, which is of a different form to 

 any that I have seen elsewhere. This is like an adze, and very similar 

 to those implements used by the Polynesians at the present day, which 

 can be made to act the part either of a hatchet or an adze, according as 

 they are fastened vertically or horizontally in the handle. f A part of the 

 original surface of the flint, which formed an indentation, has obviously 

 been taken advantage of in this specimen, to make the grasp of the hand 

 or the fitting of the handle more secure. A similar adaptation of part 

 of the original surface of concretion in the flint, that which it had when 

 it lay in the chalk, can be seen in others of the specimens, which seem 

 to have been used as either knives, daggers, or chisels, the rest of the 

 flint having been chipped to a point for the purpose. 



I have placed alongside of these flint implements a spear-head made 

 of quartz-rock, which I brought many years ago from Port Essington, in 

 ISTorth Australia, where flat splinters of quartz-rock are greatly used for 

 this purpose by the natives. This, Avhich at first sight has a more arti- 

 ficial appearance than the flint implements, is in reality much less arti- 

 ficially formed. The original form of all chalk flints is that of a rounded 

 lump, however irregular and sometimes grotesque may be the shape of 

 that lump. If broken accidentally, the fracture is like that which a 

 lump of glass would have — generally very uneven and irregular, with 

 sharp, projecting corners. The quartz-rock, however, has evidently 

 been naturally split, either by cleavage or jointing, into long, regular 

 flakes, with smooth, even surfaces, only requiring a little chipping so as 

 to produce a point to be fit for use as spear-heads. The Australians will 



* I am not aware that any specimens of the cave bear, or the cave hyasna, or of the 

 Irish elk [Megaceros Hibernicus'), have yet been found in the gravels of the Somme valley, 

 though they have been found elsewhere associated with the remains of the animals above 

 mentioned. 



t The Polynesians cut and fashioned large and magnificent canoes with these stone 

 implements, and the Papuans of New Guinea not only make canoes, able to carry thirty 

 or forty men, but build immense wooden houses, raised on large platforms of trees, all 

 cut down to one level, without the aid of any metal implement. 



