426 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
tower, called Torre del Quiuto. A tomb, called Ovid's, is dug into it ; and 
50 or 60 yards nearer Eome 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 a bed 60 or 
80 feet thick, of a kmc! 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 box 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 
l3ed 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 an3^where above 3 feet into the bank, being afraid 
of bringing down the rock above by undermining it. It appears certain 
that 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 
Eomans 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-archfeological 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 dex^th at which these remains were found. 
Mr. Mackie has drawn my attention to three skulls recently deposited 
* Huuter, ' Essays and Observations on Natiu-al History,' by Professor Owen, vol. i. 
p. 321. 
