426 



THE GEOLOaiST. 



tower, called Torre del Quinto. A tomb, called Ovid's, is dug into it ; and 

 50 or 60 yards nearer Some is a gravel-pit, which is the spot in question. 

 The hill terminates abruptly in a vertical crag, at the foot of which the 

 road passes, leaving it on the left-hand as one goes from Eome. This crag 

 exhibits the internal structure of the mass, which consists of horizontal 

 strata. The hill is about 100 feet high above the level of the plain along 

 which it passes : — 



" 1st. The upper part, on which the vegetable earth rests, is abed 60 or 

 80 feet thick, of a kind of tufa or soft volcanic stone, full of lumps of black 

 pumice of the size of a fist, more or less. 



" 2nd. A stratum of rolled pebbles, of various kinds of stone, some cal- 

 careous, some flinty, and some pumice. In general they have undergone 

 some action, which makes them crumble when taken out ; in some places 

 they are bound by a calcareous cement, and in others little attached, and 

 mixed with sand. This stratum is about 3 feet thick in one place, and 

 tapers from right to left to the thickness of a few inches, on an extent of 

 30 or 40 yards. ... 



" We found the bones contained in this bos in the first stratum of gravel 

 between the two beds of tufa. We got up to this place by a bank formed 

 by the crumbling of the hill above, and the matters thrown out of the 

 gravel-pit on the right side of it. There is the greatest reason to suppose 

 that the place where they were found had never been moved since the tufa 

 came there ; that is, that the bones and the stones of the stratum were 

 placed there by the same cause, and previous to the 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 inac- 

 cessible. 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 

 tliat the bones were brought there, along with the pebbles, loose, as bones, 

 not in carcasses, for they lie scattered together without the least connection ; 

 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 

 Ilomans 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. But in future ages, when the present rivers may take a 

 new turn [through localities] in which are deposited human bones, many 

 may be found ; for in sinking the caissons for Blackfriars Bridge a human 

 skull was found 12 feet under the bed of the river." * 



On the table of the Ethnological Society, on March 18th last, I placed, 

 through the kindness of Mr. Sass, specimens of chipped flints from the 

 valley of the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge, and from Teddington Lock. 

 These flints, though not of the highest geologico-archaeological antiquity, 

 yet by their simplicity of workmanship indicated a race which had pro- 

 gressed but little towards civilization. I am not in possession of any 

 information as to the depth at which these remains were found. 



Mr. jMackie has drawn my attention to three skulls recently deposited 



* Hunter, 'Essavs aud Obsorvatious on Katiiral History,' by Professor Owen, vol, i. 

 I). 331. 



