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The Chairman. — We are much indebted to Professor Hughes for this 
very interesting and important paper, all the more so because, in spite of his 
labours in his professional work, he has given so much valuable time to its 
preparation. Indeed, he has been so much occupied as not to have been 
able to send in the MS. in time for the Council to have it printed. I hope, 
however, that the meeting has gone sufficiently far with him to be able to 
discuss the paper. 
Mr. J. E. Howard, F.R.S. — There are a few observations I should like 
to make with regard to what has been said about the Valley of the Somme, 
and the degree of rapidity with which rivers have worn down that and 
other valleys. The valley of the Thames is one with which, of course, we are 
all more or less familiar, and we know that the deposits under London and in the 
neighbourhood disclose something as to the antiquity of the work that has been 
accomplished. We thus obtain some measure of the time which we may sup- 
pose the river to have taken in excavating the valley, supposing it to have been 
excavated in the same way as has been suggested with regard to the valley 
of the Somme and other valleys in France. The first of the strata at which 
you arrive in digging the foundations of houses in London, — and I have had 
personal experience of this recently within a few hundred yards of St. Paul’s, 
— consists of sand and gravel, and contains some remains of the Roman 
period. Then, beneath these, you arrive at strata which (I am told) contain 
the bones of the mammoth and other extinct animals. These, it seems to me, 
indicate a state of things belonging to the Pliocene period, or the period 
of the extinct animals. I do not think we can arrive at the con- 
clusion that there has been, since then, any excavation, but quite the 
reverse, when we find these strata superimposed upon each other about 
20 or 30 feet under London. (Hear, hear.) [The magnificent tusks of 
the mammoth, now in the British Museum (found at Ilford), show that 
the tributaries of the Thames flowed at about the same level when this 
creature was drowned at the ford over the Boding.] We know that 
the rivers in the neighbourhood of London do not now excavate the valleys 
at all ; it is rather the contrary, for they appear to fill up very considerably. 
(Hear.) This I know to be the case in regard to the river Lea, near which I 
live, and in the neighbourhood of which I have works, and have seen exca- 
vations. The Lea valley, in the vicinity of Bow, has been filled up since 
the Roman period to the extent of 5 or 6 feet, as is shown by the exca- 
vations that have been made ; for the workmen have found, and I have 
received from them, many curious and interesting relics of Roman times. 
Therefore, I am unable to understand the argument we have heard as to the 
formation of valleys by slowly-flowing rivers such as the Thames. It does 
not appear to me that in any conceivable time, — even if you were to take 
an eternity, — you could excavate the Valley of the Thames by means 
of the river flowing through it : it would rather, as I have already said, 
have a tendency to fill up the valley. With regard to tho valley of the Somme, 
