Charles Lyell’s theories. Quoting from The Antiquity of Man, p. DM 
(edition of 1873), he read 
Section across the Valley of the Somme, in Picardy, 
(From Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, 4th ed.) 
1. Peat 20 to 30 feet thick resting on gravel, a. 
2. Lower-level gravel with elephants’ bones and flint tools, covered with fluviatile loam, 20 
to 40 feet thick. . ...... 
3. Higher-level gravel, with similar fossils, and with overlying loam, in all 30 feet thick. 
4. Upland loam, with shells ( limon de Plateaux ), 5 or 6 feet thick. 
5. Eocene tertiary strata, resting on the chalk in patches. 
“ The chalk hills which bound the valley are almost everywhere between 
200 and 300 feet in height. On ascending to that elevation we find 
ourselves on an extensive table-land, in which there are slight elevations and 
depressions.” 
At p. 152, — “ Here and there are outlying patches of tertiary sand and 
clay (bed No. 5), with Eocene fossils, the remnants of a formation, once, 
more extensive, and which probably once spread in one continuous mass over 
the chalk, before the present system of valleys had begun to be scooped 
out, — . . . and their denudation has contributed largely to furnish the 
materials of gravels in which the flint implements and bones of extinct 
animals are entombed.” 
At p. 153, — “ The bed marked No. 2 indicates the lower-level gravels, 
• No. 3, the higher ones, or those rising to elevations of 80 or 100 feet above 
the level of the river. Newer than these is the peat, No. 1, which is from 10 
to 30 feet in thickness, and which is not only of later date than the alluvium 
Nos. 2 and 3, but is also posterior to the denudation of those gravels, or to the 
time when the valley was excavated through them” “ Underneath the peat is 
a bed of gravel from 3 to 14 feet thick, which rests on undisturbed chalk. 
This gravel was probably formed, in part at least, when the valley was 
scooped out to its present depth, since which time no geological change has 
taken place except the growth of the peat, and certain oscillations in the general 
level of the country.” 
These were briefly the materials for the computation. So many years were 
ascribed to the peat deposit (this Dr. Lyell placed at 33,000) ; so many in 
addition for the excavations which had taken place of the valley ; and so 
many for the deposition of the gravels, marked respectively No. 2 and No. 3. 
Practically these operations could only be summarized as a whole, and it was 
only by an induction from a passage elsewhere in his book that they found 
he computed the time for all these operations somewhere about 70,000 years. 
At the base, and intermingled with the lowest deposit, were the implements 
in question. 
Although not directly part of the subject before the meeting, he thought it 
well to say a few words about the 33,000 years of the peat, as it was an 
important item in the total, and it also afforded a typical instance of the 
mode in which arguments were forced into the service of the author. 
He read (p. 156),—“ The workmen who cut peat or dredge it from the 
bottom of swamps and ponds, declare that none of the hollows which they 
have found or caused by extracting peat have ever been refilled, even to a 
small extent. They deny therefore that the peat grows. This may imply that 
the increase is not appreciable.” 
Mr. Parker could only say that on asking a couple of men who were 
