55 
to remove, and propel the loosened material forward in its downward progress 
to the sea. . . . . 
Two minor considerations also might be mentioned which m a lull investi- 
gation of the phenomena should not be overlooked, though the scope of the 
present argument would not allow of any further remarks upon them. First, 
a certain amount of slope of the bed of the valley from its highest to its lowest 
point must be necessary, for below a certain incline water would not move 
large masses forward to any extent. Now, the bed of the Somme valley was 
singularly level for a wide river, there being a fall of little more than 200 feet 
from the the source of the Somme to the sea, a distance of 115 miles ; in 
fact, the fall was hardly above that of the Thames between Oxford and 
London, and the distance was the same. Second, there was the considera- 
tion of the difficulty of accounting for the disposal of the materials when they 
reached the river’s mouth. He had examined very carefully the district at the 
mouth of the Somme, and could say that they were not deposited there, nor 
were there any signs of them. Nor yet was any a 'priori ground for arguing 
that the waves had washed the debris into their depths. The history of the 
coast was directly opposed to this, as the waves were throwing up sand-dunes, 
and had been so since the earliest times of which they had any record regard- 
ing that coast. 
Mr. Parker then referred to a large diagram which he had prepared, and 
on which he had traced the main line of the Somme, with its several arteries 
— representing by broad lines of colour the several valleys converging into 
the main valley. The district represented on the diagram was about 140 
miles . from east to west, and about 60 miles from north to south. At the 
eastern end it would be observed that the Somme was simply a small stream, 
scarcely to be called a river in a strict sense. Of course, it was id a way the 
river Somme, because they considered the source of a river to be the point 
of departure of the farthest of the numerous streams which go to make up 
that river, and in most cases it was little more than water trickling along a 
ditch from some spring. But the word river in its natural, sense means the 
stream of water after many smaller streams had been combined together, and 
had contributed each one its quota to form the larger one. The history of 
nearly all rivers was this, and the Somme was no exception. It depended on 
the drainage of many sloping valleys converging into the main valley. At 
the upper part it was a brook, and it did not become a river properly so 
called, till it had received the converging rivulets of many small valleys. Till 
then it was no river ; it had no force whatever. It was necessary for the 
converging valleys to be there to supply the water ; it was necessary for the 
valley to exist to supply the fall ; so that when they were asked to. accept 
that the river Somme made the valley of the Somme, it seemed to. him they 
were asked to believe that the river made the conditions by which itself was 
ca ll ed into existence* 
It was unreasonable, on the other hand, to imagine high hills, pouring 
forth a stream of water above S. Quentin. They could not have existed 
without so total a subversion of the levels of the country, that there would be 
no need of calling in the aid of river action to account for valleys twice as 
great as the Somme valley. But as a matter of fact, geologically, such lofty 
hills could not have existed without leaving a trace behind them. 
Looking at the great system of arteries shown in the diagram, the ground 
to the south-east was on an average higher than that to the north-west. 
There were here and there hills of the same height, or almost the same, along 
the whole line, and they were broken up by innumerable valleys and 
“ combes ” ; but by taking the average from a considerable number it would 
be seen that there was a general slope., as regards the higher prominence, in a 
north-westerly direction. The hill rising immediately above the source oi 
the Somme, five miles N.E. of S. Quentin, and at a place called from the 
