THE GEOLOGIST. 



between tlie different tribes which at that period inhabited France. These 

 premises he merely puts forward, reserving for a future occasion the dis- 

 cussion which alone can establish their correctness. What he desires to 

 do now is to show that the field of discovery as to the antiquity of the 

 human race is at least open, and that this question, already so wide from 

 the little we as yet know, seems likely to be spread still wider by such dis- 

 coveries as that of which he gives the details. 



An object " incontestably fashioned by the hand of man" has been found 

 at a depth of 75 metres from the soil, in a perfectly virgin bed of the hg- 

 nites or " cendres noires " at Laon, the geological age of which goes back, 

 as is known, to the earliest times of the Paris basin deposits. Not but 

 that objects of modern production have been found in these very beds, 

 and he cites particularly a flint "hache," which was found fourteen years 

 since at 25 feet under ground, in the middle even of the lignites quarried 

 near the village of Lille, canton of Pere, department of Aisne. But these 

 facts, besides being so rare, are capable, in general, of being explained by 

 accidental causes of entombment, the lignites of the Laonnois and of the 

 Soissonois lying ordinarily at the surface or only being covered by foreign 

 deposits of no great thickness. This is not the case with the ash-bed of 

 Montaigu, near Laon, whence the object in question comes. " The ex- 

 ceptional conditions of the bedding where it was found is precisely that 

 which gives to this discovery a special interest, and perhaps a considerable 

 value ; and it is thus necessary to give here a slightly detailed description, 

 and to make known the method of quarrying/' 



"The lignites worked for agricultural purposes near the village of 

 Montaigu, four leagues north-east of Laon, occupy the foot of a Tertiary 

 hill, constituted at its base of clays, amongst which these lignites are 

 intercalated ; in the middle, of thick masses of sand, enclosing some beds 

 of shells ; and at the summit by newer clays superposed on thick beds of 

 hard rock — the Calcaire grassier of geologists, which form the crown of 

 tlie hill. The ' ash-bed' is quarried by means of subterranean galleries, 

 which extend in different directions under the hill — the principal one be- 

 ing driven into the centre of it for a considerable distance, its extremity 

 not being less than 600 metres from the point where it opens on the 

 valley. This bed is about 2*30 metres thick, and is covered by another bed 

 of marly and sandy clay, full of fossil shells peculiar to that age — Cyvena 

 ciDieifurmis, Ostrea heUovacina, etc., and which serves for the roof or 

 ceilhig of the quarry. This roof is sustained by means of wooden shores 

 placed under and across as the gallery extends ; the head only of the gal- 

 lery being left free for the work of extraction. The ' ash-bed,' attacked 

 at the foot, fulls down into the space called the 'chamber,' detaching itself 

 cleanly from the roof alhided to ; and then the ' ashes ' are put into small 

 waggons running on an iron tramway. These ' waggons' in their turn are 

 pushed by men out of the quarry, and the ' ash ' is discharged and made 

 into a heap for burnino; before being sold for agriculture. In the month 

 of August last year (18(11) the workmen emjDloyed at the end of the prin- 

 cil)al gallery, in throwing down a block of ' ashes,' observed with sur- 

 ])rise an object detach itself and roll to some distance. Struck with this 

 incident, such as had never before happened to them, they hastened to 

 s(\n-ch for it, and found a ball of moderate dimensions. But their astonish- 

 ment was increased w hen on examinnig it they thought they recognized it 

 ns the woi-k of nuin's hand. They looked then to see exactly what place in 

 strata it had occu])ied. and they are able to state that it did not come from 

 the interior of the 'ash,' but that it was imbedded at its point of contact 

 with the roof of the quarry, where it had left its impression indented. 



