CORRESPONDENCE. 



415 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



To the Editor of the Geologist. 



SlE, — When a subject of so much importance as the antiquity of the human race 

 is being discussed, there is a liability to the production of fallacious facts, as well 

 as the possibility of " true facts" being pressed beyond their legitimate value. 



A correspondent has furnished you with some particulars concerning the disco- 

 very of a human skull in the valley of the Trent, near Newark — a very different 

 locality from the vale of Bel voir. 



I am of opinion that some caution is necessary before this discovery can be taken 

 in evidence upon the subject in support of which it is brought forward. There are 

 facts associated with the locality which, I conceive, do not support the apparent 

 testimony — that the skull in question belonged to an individual who lived in the age 

 of animals now extinct. The position in which it was discovered — so near to the 

 river Trent — would give a degree of suspicion to its being a genuine witness ; besides, 

 its being so near to a bend in the river would make its value additionally question- 

 able. The horns of deer, and bones of extinct animals, with which it was found, do 

 not supply a sufficient reason in this particular instance for its being produced in 

 evidence of a high antiquity. 



Any one who is familiar with the geological phenomena of the Trent Valle 

 would regard with considerable doubt the claims which this skull should have in 

 bearing testimony upon so important a question, because an apparently undisturbed 

 condition of the drift could not be relied upon as a safe criterion by which to judge 

 of the antiquity of its animal remains, in localities near to the present channel of 

 the river. The Trent, in various parts of the valley, is ever changing its course, 

 especially at the curves. In the course of a few centuries, therefore, it is possible 

 the stream might deviate considerably from its original channel. This fact has been 

 observed in several instances. In one example, a few miles from the place at which 

 the remains alluded to were discovered, the gradual erosion of the land from one 

 side at a bend in the river, and an equivalent deposition on the opposite margin, 

 has continued until several acres have been transferred from one side of the river to 

 the other, within the memory of living individuals. The river, moreover, does not 

 continue at the same depth at any particular place ; places which were once 

 fordable are now too deep to pass over, and vice versd. 



If human remains were discovered at a depth of twenty- five feet in these drift 

 gravels, over which it was known the river had passed in recent times, it is certain 

 they could not supply any satisfactory evidence of a high antiquity. 



The diagram at p. 351 represents the locality of the discovery. The sharpness of 

 the curve in the river would undoubtedly in a few centuries cause the stream at 

 this place to deviate more or less from its original course. This skull may, there- 

 fore, have been in the first instance at the bottom of the river with the bones of 

 animals and horns of deer washed out from the drift gravels, and as the stream 

 gradually removed from the channel in which it then flowed, they would be covered 

 by its deposits. In course of time the river would have removed to a distance from 

 its former bed in which the remains were found. 



The association of pottery with the other relics in so limited a space as fifteen 

 feet would seem to indicate a depression in the bed of the river, into which they 

 would be collected by the current. 



The river's deposition of sand and silt would also assume that natural form which 

 would have the appearance of an undisturbed stratification, because it had been 

 formed by natural causes. 



If those who have inspected the locality have fully estimated these facts, it may 

 be the discovery is as valuable as your correspondent appears to consider it. 



I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully, 



Nottingham, lBth Sept., 1861. 



J. H. W. 



