NOTES AND QUEHIES. 
hr\^ anterior to even traditionary lore ; and that too many generations of men 
have ])Kss(!d away to preserve and hand down to tlic prciscnt day an account of 
remote physical clianges, whicli being local in then- nature, and in no way in- 
terfering with the requirements of man in a rude and barbarous state, living 
prol)ably by tlie produce of the chase alone, would make no lasting impression 
on his uncultivated mind; or it is quite possible that the adjacent district was 
nniuliabited, and that the body may have been transported from the interior to 
the spot in which it was found, as three noble rivers — the Suii', the Nore, and 
the Barrow — unite theii- streams, and flow into the estuary above the village of 
Passage, to the north of Newtown Head, where a wide expanse of salt-water 
muiglcs with the confluent streams as they pass onward to the sea. 
The changes indicated by the rather wide-spread bed of cockles point to a 
period of time when the waters of the estuary occupied a much wider space 
tlian at present ; when the sediment was accumulating to a greater depth 
before the cockles existed and were destroyed, and the entombment of the 
human body, than it did subsequently. 
In connection with the remams of man occurring in an ancient raised sea- 
bed, is the fact that so many flint implements have been found in the drift, 
which seemingly carries us back to a period when Europe and the British isles 
were inliabited by a race of savages, among whom the use of iron or other 
metals was unknown ; and who, strangers to the arts of civiUzed man, had 
contrived to make those rude flint implements, which are now found in the 
drift, to supply the wants of men in a state of nature, testifying to their 
remote antiqiuty. 
With respect to the great antiquity of the human race, and considering our 
method of computing time, the questions naturally arise — Are we wholly 
wrong in our chronology ? and, Ai-e the Chinese and Egyptians in their reckon- 
ing nearer the truth than the western nations ? Every opposition will be 
made to the proper solution of these questions by those who are averse to the 
progress of science, and every effort to explain away the facts bearing on this 
most important and interesting inquiry will be essayed by its opponents. 
Some persons wholly deny that the chipped flints, or " celts," which are 
found in the di-ift are the work of hxmian hands, and attribute their 
peculiar forms to the action of running water; others consider that they 
are the production of some subterranean manufactory, which volcanic explo- 
sions have sent forth rough cast, so that on cooling they became fractured, 
and assumed their present forms. Others, again, beheve that frost had mueh 
to do with shaping the "langues des chats." Thus, heat, cold, fire, and 
water are made to produce one sunple effect— in short, anything, except the 
more rational supposition that they are the vestiges of man's works ; a fact 
that is admitted by those whose opinions are entitled to much weight in such 
matters. Whatever age may be finally assigned to the drift and the ancient 
sea-margins, one thing appears clearly established, namely, that an aboriginal 
race of men inhabited the earth prior to the superficial accumulations on parts 
of its surface, and long ere the noble savage had discovered the use of iron or 
other metals, or the secret of their manufacture. 
I foimd no novel theory on the discovery of the human skeleton in the 
ancient estuary clay, or the flint implements in the drift ; but I offer these 
observations, believing that the two facts taken in connection with each other 
will stimulate inquiry, and probably lead to a satisfactory solution of a ques- 
tion liighly interesting to man, and which inquiry may tend to establish the 
truth — which is the chief end and aim of science. — T. Austin, Kingsdown, 
Bristol. 
Query respecting the Geological Characters of the Gravels of 
St. Acheul, &c.— Sir, — I do not consider myself to be a geologist, though for 
VOL. III. K 
