292 
IHR. PEESTWICH OX FLIXT-IMPLE:MEXT3. 
that it was in its natural position, for the gravel is generally so loose, that a blow 
with a pick disturbs and brings it down for some way around ; and the matrix is too 
little adhesive to admit of its being built up again as before with the same materials. 
At this spot the matrix of the gravel consisted of the usual chalky sand ; the seam was 
continuous, the fragments of flint were in their ordinar}' position, and the cohesion of 
them and of the worked flint in the face of the gravel was exactly of the same strength. 
I found also afterwards, on taking out the flint, that it was the thinnest side which pro- 
jected, the other side being less finished and much thicker, — a position therefore the 
reverse of that which would have been adopted had it been pushed in ; if it had been, 
the hole made by the ingress of the thicker edge would have left the projecting t hin ner 
edge unsecured, whereas the matrix was close up to it all arormd, and neither harder, 
looser, nor differing in texture or colour from the adjacent portion of the gravel. "SAriien 
also I removed this implement I found that the sand, in all its minute indentations, 
corresponded exactly with the matrix of that particular seam of the gravel. I carefully 
examined the ground above, and could detect no trace of any artificial distm-bance. 
Each bed followed its natural course above the place where the flint-implement was 
imbedded, and the lines of division of the upper brown gravel and clay, of the light- 
coloured sands, and of the lower gravel, were continuous and unbroken. The section 
at this spot was as under — 
feet. 
r Erick-earth (removed) 6 
h. - Brown sandy clay and gravel ly 
I Brown sandy clay, reposing upon an irregular surface of c 2y 
c. While chalky sand with freshwater shells, thinning out at one end of the section 3 
d. Coarse gravel, in which, at a depth of 4 feet, the flint-im'plement was imbedded Sy 
In another and deeper part of the pit, the workmen on the same day turned out, 
amongst the dug gravel, two more perfect specimens of flint-implements, from depths 
respectively of 20 and 24 feet beneath the original siu’face. Portions of the white calca- 
reous matrix still adhered to these implements, and they were partly stained ochreous. 
like one portion of the gravel with which they were in contact. This part of the pit was. 
like the other, perfectly undisturbed. The bed of sand over the graA'el was, however, 
more developed and more argillaceous, and I found in it, immediately above tlie place 
where the flints were lying, many perfect specimens of the fingile Limneus, Succinea. 
Planorhis^ and Helix. The workmen brought us some ten or twelve more fiint-iniple- 
ments recently discovered. They all affirmed these flintsf to be found low domi in the 
gravel and in unbroken ground {terrain vierge). When the pits are in full work, a day 
rarely passes without some of these objects being met uith. The number is in fact one 
* This implemeut is rougher aud more imperfect than the generality of the specimens ; still it exhibits 
evident traces of working, especially on one side and at the point. It is an unfinished implement, 
resembling in that respect several I have since seen. 
t Xow commonly known to them by the name of “ Haches.” The children sometimes call them “Langues 
de Chat.” I may observe that our visit, both at Abbeville and Amiens, was entirely unforeseen aud unex- 
pected, and very little value was then placed on either flint-implements or fossils. 
