292 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
speciality, these very quaternary beds; aud if any man's knowledge 
or judgment is to be relied upon for an opinion as to the age or 
nature of such deposits, assuredly it is his. Cautious in the extreme 
in adventuring conclusions, and fastidiously painstaking in collecting 
facts and testing the accuracy of his observations, no cooler intellect 
could discuss and put in intelligible order such intricate conditions 
as the gravel-beds to the inexperienced present. Those who have 
read his late masterly communications to the Eoyal Society will need 
no comments of ours to satisfy tliem of the accuracy of the views ex- 
pressed, and of the ability of their author. But, to reply to M. Gras' 
suppositions. E-eferring the flint-implements to historic times for 
their origin, M. Gras states : — 1. That the makers were not ohliged to 
go very far for their material. — True, they were not obliged, if — and 
the whole summary involves a constant use of the little conjunction 
— i/'they did make the implements on the gravel-banks in which they 
have been embedded. This is by no means certain ; but one thing is 
quite sure, we have ourselves seen — and handled — a veritable flint- 
implement from the valley of the Somme, which, although found in 
the gravel-bed, was undoubtedly and unmistakably, — we were born 
in a chalk district, and on the sea-coast, so we know well what flints 
and pebbles are, — made out of a flint nodule taken directly out of the 
chalk rock. 
In this case, therefore, the primitive manufacturer went at least to 
the side of the valley to get material wliich, according to M. Gras, 
he had, and quite as good, on the grayel-bank under his feet. If the 
manufacturer could be supposed to have worn breeches, he might be 
supposed to have pocketed a fine nodule which he chanced to fall in 
with on a pleasure-ramble ; but as he cannot be presumed to have so 
clothed his lower extremities, that presumption is untenable. 
As a rule, we fancy that very many of the implements were made 
of flints directly taken from the Chalk ; such flints would be prefer- 
able, generally, to gravel-flints, although suitable specimens could 
undoubtedly be collected from the gravel-beds, but not so abundantly 
as M. Gras infers. That some implements were made of large 
quaternary flint pebbles, the specimens from Herne Bay are indubi- 
table evidence. 
2. The digging of the flints hy means of pits or gallej'ies. — Setting 
aside the improbability of men digging for what they could find with- 
out labour on the surface, what, in the name of all mysteries, had 
those poor primitive savages to dig icith ? Flint-implements ? It 
