NOTES AND QUERIES. 
75 
the chalk — exactly such a situation as both Celts and Scandinavians chose for 
the (rUinuli of then- great warriors. Many of their tumuli arc entirely forniod 
of stones heaped together, tliough most of them have earth mixed with the 
stones. In Yorkshire we have tumuli larger than this at Saint Achcul would 
sceni to be — for instance, one near Brall'ords and Wauldby Wood, which is 
probably tluit in wliich Ivar Eeculosc, the son of llcgner Lodlu'og, caused 
himself to be buried on the coast near the Humbcr, and which Worsoe, in his 
" Danes and Norwegians in England," mentions (at page 38) that William the 
Coucpicror caused to be opened. Another tumulus of greater size occurs 
between Ncwbald and Beverley, and others near Porkthorpe, between Drilficld 
and Iluninimby. The size, therefore, is no objection to the patch at Saint 
Achcul b(nng a tumulus in which these tlint hatchets are found ; aiul, observe, 
they are not found in the drift at Saint E-och, nor in^ny of the other patches, 
but they ought to be found throughout the whole of the di-ift in that locality, 
if dcj)osited along with the drift itself. Moreover, if the hatchets had been 
brought to Saint Achenl along with the original drift at the time of its deposi- 
tion by nature, they would have been water- worn like tlie di-ift gravel itsell' ; 
whereas they appear to be formed from rolled flints, but the -worked part uot in 
the least water-worn, showing they were constructed since the water- wearing of 
the companion drift in which they exist.* 
From a description by Mr. Flower, I entertain great doubts whether this 
patcli of drift gravel on the summit of an elevation about one hundred feet high 
was deposited there at all by the di'ift forces ; but if it were so, the ancient 
Celts may still have availed themselves of it as the covering, or tumulus of the 
grave of one of their great chiefs. I much incline, however, to the opinion that 
the natural rise of one hundi'cd feet (the only one it seems thereabouts) has 
been selected as the site of the tumulus, and the gravel brought at, or after 
tlie funeral, from Saint Roch, and heaped over the body, for it is clear that the 
raised materials of many tumuli in England have been brought from some dis- 
tance, and the labour of a whole tribe bestowed for a few weeks woidd siilfice 
to do that honour to the memory of their deceased chief at Saint Acheul. The 
higher a chief was in the esteem of his people the larger liis tumulus, and the 
greater the pains bestowed on it. Some of these tumuli called by the Celts 
cromlechs, had a stone chamber w^ithin them for the corpse, and in them, too, 
the mound was not unfrequently composed of stones iustead of earth — see Sir 
Richard Colt Hoare's work on the subject, and Wright's "Celt, Roman, and 
Saxon," at page 63 of which you ^vill find it was always the desire of chiefs to 
be buried in lofty situations. Sometimes the body w-as deposited on the ground 
and the tunuilus heaped over it ; but in the Wolds of Yorkshire, the earth has 
often been removed aovm to the chalk, and there the body deposited ; and I ap- 
prehend if there was an original deposit of diift gravel on the summit of tlie 
till at Sauit Acheul, it would be removed down to the deposit preceeding it, and 
the body there laid, and then the gravel again heaped on it. But as I said be- 
fore, it is not improbable (as the patch of drift is only of the extent of a modern 
dwelling-house) that it has all been brought from Saint Roch. 
Stone hatchets have been found in British tumuli. Why not then in French 
ones ? 
I do not find any account of the precise sort of locality in which the Abbe- 
ville hatchets are found ; but if they also are confined to particular spots in t ho 
drift bed, and not found in all parts indiscriminately, it would go far in my niiud 
to establish the idea of those bemg graves where the hatchets are found. 
* Some specimens coUecterl by M. Boiiclier de Perthes, now by loan of Mr. Flower in my 
possession, I think are sUghtly water-worn. Some of these " celts" may have been, manu- 
factured from flints taken directly out of the chalk ; others, I am inclined to believe, have 
been manufactured from large gravel flints. — Ed. Geologist. 
