294 
ME. PEESTWICH OX FLIXT-BIPLE3IEXTS. 
Menchecourt. In proceeding to St. Acheul, at a short distance eastward, and nearly on 
the same level, is a bed of 15 to 20 feet of clay and sand. A little way higher up the 
hill the chalk comes to the surface, or is merely covered by 2 or 3 feet of brick-earth. 
The beds at St. Koch and St. Acheul, whatever may have been the case oiiginally, are 
not now continuous. Still they trend one towards the other round the base of the hill, 
having been traced along part of the railway cutting. 
XoTE. — I again -visited Abbe-vdle and Amiens in June 1859 vrith some otter Members of tbe Geological 
Society. On this occasion my friend Mr. J. "VV. Fio-wee succeeded, after some search, in disinterring with 
his own hands a fine and large flint-implement at a depth of 22 feet from the original surface of the ground, 
— an important and conclusive fact to -which we aU bore -witness. An account of this discovery has been 
communicated to the Geological Society. (Quart. Journ. vol. x-vi. p. 190.) 
Shortly afterwards Sir Chaeles Lyeli visited the pits, and expressed an opinion confirmative of the 
antiquity of the flints at the Meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen (see Eeport of the Pro- 
ceedings). He was followed by M. Gaijdey of Paris, who spent several days at Amiens for the purpose of 
exploring the pits, and witnessed the finding of nine flint-implements. The result of his observations he 
communicated to the Institute of France in October 1859 (see the Comptes Eendus of the 3rd Oct.). 
M. Geoege Pouchet, of Eouen, deputed by the municipahty of Eouen to visit the pits, published a report, 
in which he described his having seen and extracted a worked flint in situ, and fidly confirming M. Boycheb 
DE Peethes’ discovery (Actes du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. de Eouen, 1860, p. 33). M. Desxo-yees and M. Hebebt 
have also made a further examination of this singular locality, respecting which M. Hebebt has given some 
additional explanation to the Geological Society of France (Bull. vol. x-vii. p. 103). — April 1860. 
§ 3. NATHEE AND VALUE OF THE EVIDENCE. 
Questions have been raised, — 1st, as to whether the so-caUed flint-implements have 
really been fashioned by the hand of man ; 2ndly, whether they can be of recent 
manufacture ; 3rdly, whether they could have got into their present position subse- 
quently to the formation of the beds in which they are found, or whether they truly 
belong to the same period. 
1 Under ordinary circumstances I should hardly have deemed it necessary to touch, 
in a geological paper, upon some of the following points, if satisfied myself with the 
evidence usually deemed conclusive in like cases. In a question, however, of this im- 
portance, a few remarks, which to many will, I fear, appear supererogatory, seem required 
to meet the various objections that have been raised. 
It is essential, as a preliminary step, to recollect that the argument does not rest 
upon the evidence of skill, but upon the e^ddence of design. The skill being rude (for 
the flints are only chipped into form and in no degree ground do^m) is not always 
evident at first sight, and hence the existence of design has been sometimes denied. 
Flints from the chalk hills of the district itself readily supplied the material of which 
the flint-implements are formed. The exterior of all chalk flints in'sariably presents 
a white earthy crust, from which small fossils frequently project, while the interior of 
the flint is black or dusky, but clear and semi-transparent. The fracture is conchoidal 
or splintery ; and there is no tendency to break in one direction rather than in 
