IX BEDS OF A LATE GEOLOGICAL PEEIOD. 
281 
case, is evident from the fact that in some caves pieces of a broken stalagmite floor are 
actually mixed up with bones of the animals in the loam or clay under a second and 
newer floor of stalagmite*. 
To clear up my doubts, I resolved to take an early opportunity of examining an open 
section I had long intended to visit in consequence of its interest in a purely geological 
point of view, but now more particularly attractive in connexion with the important 
question raised by M. Bouchee de Peethes. This section, which is exposed in digging 
for sand and loam at Menchecourt near Abbeville, is noted for its fossil remains of 
Elephant, Rhinoceros, &c., which are there found associated not only with many land 
and freshwater shells, but also with several species of marine shells. It has been described 
both by M. IlAVixf and M. ButeuxJ, in their excellent memoirs on the Geology of 
the Department. In a note to his description, M. Buteux adds that M. Bouchee de 
Peethes had discovered hatchets and other implements in flint in the same beds, but 
that “ this discovery may be classed with others of the same sort the exactitude of which 
has been contested,” &c., — a verdict generally concurred in at the time§. 
The subsequent publication of Dr. Bigollot’s interesting memoir again led to further 
discussion and inquiry by several eminent French geologists, especially M. Hebeet and 
M. Buteux, who now frankly stated the facts relating to the discovery, but without 
indorsing them with the sanction of their authority or expressing any decided opinion ||. 
There could not have been more fitting and able geologists than these, my colleagues 
of the French Geological Society, to conduct any such inquiry, and I might well have 
left the matter entii’ely in their hands had they pursued the investigation further. The 
subject, however, seemed neglected, and no further steps, that I am aware of, were being 
taken to investigate it. 
In the autumn of 1858 Dr. Falcoxee, in passing through Abbeville, examined 
M. Bouchee de Peethes’ collection, and satisfied that the flints (the H aches) were really 
worked by man, and bore all the impress of age, and that M. De Peethes had probably 
taken a correct \iew of their geological position, he wrote me a letter describing the 
great interest of the collection, and urging me warmly to visit the district, and to see the 
sections described by M. De Peethes. Feeling the desirability, in a question of this 
importance, of having the testimony of several competent witnesses, I proposed a visit, 
last Easter, to Abbeville and Amiens to some fellow members of the Geological Society, 
with the intention of drawing up a joint report on the subject. Owing, however, to an 
* This occurs, amongst other places, in some of the caves near Liege. Op. cit. vol. i. pp. 19, 29, 35. 
t “ Memoire Geologique sur le Bassin d’ Amiens,” in the Memoires de la Soci^te Eoyale d’Emulation 
d’Abhevihe, 1834 et 1835, p. 197. 
X Esquisse Geologique du Departement de la Somme, p. 76. Amiens, 1849. 
§ The non-acceptance of the same fact by M. le Viscomte d’Aechiac, in his elaborate and most valuable 
‘ Histoire des Progres de la Geologie,’ vol. ii. p. 166, and by Dr. Maxtell, in his paper ‘ On the Eemains 
of Man and Works of Art imbedded in Eocks and Strata,’ 1851, shows how unsatisfactory the evidence was 
at that time considered. 
11 Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de Prance, 2nd ser. vol. xii. p. 112 and 254. Mdm. Soc. Imperiale 
d’Emulation d’ Abbeville for 1857, p. 570. 
