M. GBAS' ATTACK ON THE TLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 
285 
mental vision, or our own. If we err, however, fortunately we shall 
be in goodly company, for we shall be on the side of Prestwich, Ei- 
gollet, Lyell, Evans, and those many others who hold the like opi- 
nions with ourselves upon the subjects M. Gras attacks. Let M. 
Gras, however, speak his own arguments : — 
" These different circumstances, in appearance so conclusive, are not 
however irreconcilable with the idea of diggings having been made, at 
a certain epoch, in the soil. Before demonstrating this, I must dwell upon 
some important facts. The first is, the integrity and perfect preservation 
of the axes ; they look as if just come from the hands of the workman. It 
has been inferred (the inference was unavoidable) that they were buried 
on the spot, or brought from very near localities. A second fact, not less 
remarkable, is the truly astonishing multitude of these axes. The number 
of them found at St. Acheul, in the compass of about a hectare (two 
acres), has been estimated at more than three thousand. The rich collec- 
tion of M. Boucher de Perthes alone contains more than a thousand. M. 
Albert Gaudry, who has caused diggings to be made, has seen nine of 
them disinterred, one after another, in close succession. The fact of the 
multitude of worked flints, joined to the entireness of their edges, shows 
clearly that there was formerly a considerable manufacture of these objects 
on the spot. If we adopt the hypothesis of those who would place this 
manufacture beyond historic times, it must needs be admitted that there 
existed on the banks of the ancient valley of the Somme a people of the 
quaternary epoch occupied in cutting axes by thousands. As evidently it 
could not use them all, it must doubtless have supplied them to other qua- 
ternary races of the neighbouring countries. But if this were so, why has 
this industrial population of the ancient world left no other trace of ita 
existence except these rudely-fashioned flints ? Why, above all, do we 
not find human remains in the diluvium ? Their absence is the more 
astonishing, as it is not uncommon to find there the remains of elephants, 
rhinoceroses, and other animals. If men, so civilized as to occupy them- 
selves with commerce, lived on the banks of the Somme at the commence- 
ment of the quaternary period, they must have constructed habitations 
there, and these would be seen now in the mass of dihivium which at a 
later period filled up the valley ; they would even be perfectly preserved 
in it. i^ow this deposit has never presented the least vestige ot a habita- 
tion, nor even of other products of human industry, excepting flint objects. 
Another consideration strengthens all these grounds of doubt ; worked 
flints, similar to those which are claimed as diluvian, have been found in 
such a position, that it has been necessary to attribute to them a modern 
origin. M. Toillez, an archa?ologist and engineer of ]\Ions, possesses a 
collection of four hundred axes, which for the most part are rough, and do 
not differ sensibly from those of St. Acheul ; nevertheless, they have all 
been collected at the surface of the soil. Is it admissible to suppose that 
products so similar were manufactured, the one set at the commencement 
of the quaternary period, the other during the now existing period, seeing 
that an immense mterval of time separates the two epochs? " 
Here again we select the points of attack : — 1. I7ie perfect pre- 
servation of the axes, — " They look as if they had just come from the 
hands of the workmen." Say some look," and then we shall reply, 
