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say whether you think they can have been deposited that way. You find 
shells and you find loam interstratified with the gravel, and it is quite clear 
from their character and arrangement that they were not carried by great 
cataclysms. The raised beaches of the coast are quite different from the 
river terraces of which I speak. They are sea beaches at a higher level 
than is now reached by the tide, and though some can be explained by 
the action of the sea on a sloping shore now cut back to a cliff, no tide could 
carry the shingle up and form a beach several hundred feet above the sea. 
Again, with regard to the width of the valley we have no reason to suppose 
that it was ever filled with water right across. A river is continually shift- 
ing its channel on the low ground. I have walked over many dry places in 
Wales where I have myself known the river once ran. A river does not cut 
straight down along the whole of its course. What a river does is this. 
[Here he illustrated his remarks by sketches drawn upon the black-board.] 
When it is checked at any point by an obstacle, such as a hard rock or by 
its having reached low flat ground, it is thrown across the valley from side 
to side, partly by the weir-like banks thrown up by itself, and undermin- 
ing first one side then the other, forms in time a wide valley. When it has 
cut down through the obstacle, or upheaval has put an end to the ponding 
back by the sea, then the river excavates a deep channel through the alluvial 
plain which was formed during the stationary period, and patches of the old 
alluvial deposits are left as terraces. The next point was that there were no 
human bones found. Now, we must remember that in all the explorations made 
by the Challenger and the various ships that have been sent out for the pur- 
pose of dredging, no single human bone has been dredged up, and yet how 
many thousands have gone to the bottom of the sea. Again, when the 
Lake of Haarlem was drained not a human bone was found ; so that there 
is not very much importance to be attached to the absence of bones in the 
gravel. I take my stand upon this, that here [pointing to the flint imple- 
ments] you have the work of man. Three pieces of flint have been put 
before me by way of test. I suppose the gentleman who questioned me knew 
something of them, but I knew nothing. I recognised these pieces [show- 
ing them] as the work of man, from the combination of blows that have 
produced the form usually associated with man’s handiwork ; but with 
regard to this [holding up another piece], I do not know how it has been 
produced, but I am certain that nature alone has been at work here. In the 
implement which I say is the work of man I find that blows have been 
delivered all round the edge with the evident and definite design of pro- 
ducing this form. We can recognise these implements from the outline, and 
refer them to a certain date by their known association. It is possible that 
in some cases the flint may have received a blow or two to try it, and 
then have been thrown away. Here is one of such pieces [showing it]. It 
is not dressed round the edge ; it is a mere rough piece, such as we find 
abundance of. I have expressed a doubt as to this [producing a piece of 
flint], in the production of which only three blows have been required. 
The reason why I have a doubt about it is this We have found the old 
