SECTIONS AT AMIENS. 
293 
of the surprising features of the case. Dr. Eigollot mentions that between August and 
December 1854, above 400 of such specimens were found at St. Acheul, and that, from 
the time he began collecting, 150 had been brought to him* * * § . They are not found 
together or in heaps, but separately and at greater or less intervals. The bulk of them 
show very little appearance of wear. Many are as sharp and fresh-looking as though 
they had but recently come from the hands of the workman. I have, however, some 
which are distinctly worn ; and a few specimens which had been broken before they 
were entombed, as shown by the colour and staining of the fractured surface, in parti- 
cular exhibit a blunting of the broken edges. Some are unfinished, and some retain 
portions of the outer original chalky crust, wherever it suited the form of the implement. 
They are said by Dr. Eigollot never to be found either in the upper brown clay or 
gravel, Jf. 
We afterwards visited several neighbouring gravel pits, with a view to determine the 
relation which the beds at St. Acheul bore to the other drift beds of the district. At 
St. Eoch, on the south-west of Amiens, and 1|- mile distant from St. Acheul, is a large 
gravel pit, celebrated for the number of its mammalian remains;J;. It is situated on the 
lower part of the hill, sloping down to the valley. The gravel consists, like that at 
St. Acheul, — except that it has fewer ferruginous or ochreous seams and sandstone 
blocks, and more chalk debris, — of a mass of loosely packed white and light-coloured 
sub-angular flints, tertiaiy flint-pebbles and sandstones, sand, and chalk rubble, from 
20 to 28 feet deep, overlaid by 3 to 8 feet of brick-earth. The following is the list of 
mammalian remains from this locality : — 
Bos primigenius, Boj . Elephas primigenius, Blum. Hippopotamus § . 
Cerviis somonensis, Cuv. Eguus (E. fossilis, Owen). Rhinoceros tichorJiinus^ Cuv. 
Elephas antigims, Falc. 
We found no shells in any part of this pit. Dr. Eigollot states that some few flint- 
implements have been met with ; but we discovered none, nor could we hear of any 
having been recently found. The level of the ground is lower than that at St. Acheul, 
extending from about 45 to 60 feet above the Somme ; and the gravel does not range 
up the hill, but abuts against it, and is commanded by the chalk hills, as the sand at 
* Op. eit. p. 15. On my first visit we brought away from the pits about 26 specimens ; on a second 
visit 38 ; on a third visit 32 ; and on a fourth visit 14. It must not, however, be supposed that they are 
easily found. They require a long and careful search. 
t I have since had reason to question this point, but the evidence is contradictory. 
J There is a collection of the fossil bones from this pit in the Museum at the Botanic Q-arden. They are 
mostly more blanched and decomposed than those at St. Acheul, and are generally very friable, though many 
of the specimens are perfect in shape and well preserved. Teeth of the Mephas prvmigenius and of the 
Rhinoceros tichorhinus are common. See Btjteux, op. cit. p. 71, and Eigollot, op. cit. p. 35. 
§ On my second visit to this pit we obtained from one of the workmen four fine and well-preserved tusk 
teeth of the Hippopotamus, — a genus not previously noted from this place. The Elephas antiqims has also 
just been noted by Dr. Ealcoxee. — N ovember 1860. 
MDCCCLX. 2 R 
