57 
chalk-bed from, the ocean was probably not of that passive character which 
belonged to a tide receding from the shore ; bntj it might well have been the 
result of active elevation of the chalk, and such elevation could scarcely have 
been unaccompanied by fissures and inequalities which, as a rule, would lie, 
as regards their greater intensity, in lines at right angles to the main axis of 
elevation. That was just what those valleys did, and the minor fissures 
represented by the smaller ravines lay again in a general sense at right angles 
to" them, as might be seen by a glance at the Ordnance map before them, on 
which the valleys were slightly tinted. The general aspect of the Somme 
valley and its tributary ravines pointed distinctly to operations connected 
with the rising from the ocean bed. Whether that took place in tertiary or 
post-tertiary times, whether once or more than once, were not questions with 
which he had now to deal. All he would lay stress on was that those rivers 
and. valleys, and among them the Somme river and Somme valley, did not 
owe their origin to the slow excavation of river action, and therefore the 
assumption of that action, as a measure of time in connection with phenomena 
which the valley presented, was an absolute error. 
He next passed on to the consideration of the deposition of the gravels. 
Practically the two arguments were based upon the same premise. The 
current of the Somme excavated the valley, and in doing so deposited the 
upper-level gravel. It afterwards excavated the upper-level gravel, and 
deposited the lower-level gravel. It afterwards excavated that gravel, and 
the 33,000 years of the peat-formation set in. At least, this was what was 
meant if there was any meaning in Sir Charles Lyell’s argument at all. It 
was difficult to quote one single passage stating this. At p. 168 there was a 
good deal about beds 1, 2, and 3 ; but it would be found that the reference 
was to another set of beds in another section and in reverse order. And yet 
the descriptions were intended to be a continuation of the same argument. 
Again at p. 173, in referring to the first section for comparison with the 
Menchecourt beds, he spoke of No. 2 as the lower-level gravel, and No. 3 as 
higher alluvium ; but at p. 169 the low-level beds at Menchecourt were 
spoken of as the older alluvium. He could not but think that if a clearer 
explanation of the phenomena had been given, the fallacies involved in the 
conclusions would have presented themselves to the mind of the readers if 
not to that of the compiler of the book. 
Before quitting this part of the subject, Mr. Parker referred to the passage 
at p. 186, where it was said there were “ patches of drift at heights inter- 
mediate between the higher and lower gravel, and also some deposits showing 
that the river once flowed at elevations above as well as below the level of 
the platform of S. Acheul.” He pointed out how practically the line of 
demarcation between high and low level gravels did not exist in fact, and 
that the argument therefore in regard to age derived from this difference of 
level was wholly untenable. 
Having treated of the general aspect of the Somme valley as regarded the 
evidence for the antiquity of the implement-bearing beds, he gave an account 
of the position of the beds in a particular district, namely, that of S. Acheul, 
about 1| mile east of Amiens, a district said to have yielded more of the flint 
implements in a small space than any other. 
The plan exhibited some ten or twelve pits or cuttings in a space of about 
one mile from east to west, and three-quarters of a mile north to south. The 
levels of the surface of pits were marked, and a series of coloured sections of 
the sides of the pits, &c., drawn to scale. From these it appeared that while 
there was a gentle slope of the surface of the ground towards the south, there 
was a very rapid descent of the underlying chalk in a particular part, and in 
this hollow there had been the accumulation which contained the flint 
implements. The actual section presented a “ combe ” in the chalk filled up 
nearly to the level of the sides with gravels and sands, not stratified 
