Bimana. MAMMALIA. Bimana. 
Stop and scrutinize the evidence, but that a quarter 
of a century should have elapsed before even the 
neighboring professors of the University of Li6ge 
came forth to recognize and vindicate the truth- 
fulness of their indefatigable countryman.” 
In 1841, M. Boucher de Perthes found flint imple- 
ments in the valley of the Somme, France. These 
were associated in the terrace gravel (which was 
being removed for the fortifications of the place) 
with bones of the Elephant, Ehinoceros, Bear, Hyaena, 
Stag, Ox, Horse, and other animals. In 1847, he 
published an account of his researches in a work 
entitled, Antiquites Celtiqiben. 
All of these discoveries were regarded as of little 
importance at the time, but later investigations have 
awakened a new interest, and the old fields have not 
only been re-examined, but others have been opened, 
which exhibit, it is thought, much stronger proof 
of the great antiquity of Man. The valley of the 
Somme, now historical in the annals of Archmology, 
which is about a mile wide and situated between 
Abbeville and Amiens, is of the Chalk formation, 
with horizontal strata. Bluffs, which are in some 
instances three hundred feet in height, bound the 
valley ; from these heights a level plateau stretches 
out, the surface of which for about five feet in thick- 
ness consists of brick earth ; this is destitute of fossils. 
Patches of sand and clay, with Eocene fossils, are oc- 
casionally seen, and it is probable that this formation 
once stretched continuously over the chalk, but has 
been broken up and removed by denudation ; and these 
materials contribute largely to form those beds of 
gravel in which the flint implements and the Mam- 
malian remains are entombed. The following par- 
ticulars from Ly ell’s work will give a more complete 
exhibition of the subject : 
Section across the Valley of the Somme. 
“1. Peat, twenty to thirty feet thick, resting on 
gravel deposited on chalk (newest deposit.) 
“ 2. Lower level gravel, forming the first bench, 
with Elephants’ bones and flint tools, covered with 
fluviatile loam, twenty to forty feet thick. 
“ 3. Upper level gravel, forming the second bench, 
with similar fossils, and with overlying loam, in all 
thirty feet thick. 
“4. Upland loam, without shells, five or six feet 
thick, spread over the plateau, as before described. 
“ 5. Eocene tertiary strata, resting on the chalk 
strata in patches.” 
The peat, as before stated, is the most recent of 
all these deposits, and occupies the lower parts of the 
valley, all the way from the sea to far above Amiens, 
including Abbeville, and in places is thirty feet thick. 
All of the imbedded Mammalia, as well as the shells, 
are the same species as those now inhabiting Europe. 
At some depth in this formation, near Abbeville, are 
seen trunks of alders standing erect as they grow, 
with their I’oots fixed in the ancient soil. Stems of 
the hazel, and nuts of the same, and trunks of the 
oak and walnut abound. Traced to the sea coast, 
the peat is seen passing under the sand-dunes and 
iii 
below the water level. This would indicate that 
there had been a submergence of the land, of what 
was once a continuance of the valley into what 
is now a part of the British Channel. The workmen 
who cut this peat declare that none of the hollows 
during their lives have been refilled, and, therefore, 
that peat does not grow ; but this is a mistake, the 
increment in one generation not being appreciable to 
the ordinary observer. Near the surface of this 
deposit occur Gallo-Roman remains, and, still deeper, 
Celtic weapons of the Stone Period ; but this is no 
sure test of age, for in a semi-fluid mass heavy weapons 
would sink down by their own gravity. In one case, 
however, M. Boucher de Perthes observed several 
larger dishes of^roken pottery lying in a horizontal 
position, the shape of which must have prevented 
them from sinking through the underlying peat. Al- 
lowing about fourteen centuries for the growth of the 
superincumbent vegetable matter, he calculates that 
the thickness gained in a hundred years would be no 
more than three French centimetres, say about three 
English inches. This rate of increase would demand 
so many tens of thousands of years for the formation 
of the entire thickness of thirty feet, that we must 
hesitate before adopting it as a chronometric scale. 
The materials making up the deposit No. 2 are 
almost devoid of stratification, and are probably formed 
of the mud or sediment thrown down by the waters 
of the river when they overflowed the ancient alluvial 
plain of that day. Its upper surface has been deeply 
furrowed by water, at the time when the earthy mat- 
ter of No. 1 was superimposed. The Mammalia most 
frequently found in this deposit, as well as No. 3, are 
the following : Elephasprimigenius, Rhinoceros ticho- 
rhinus, Equus fossilis, Bos primigenius, Cervus somo- 
nensis, Genus tarundus prise us. Hycena spelcea. 
The deposit No. 3 is made up of a succession of 
beds, chiefly of a fresh-water origin, but occasionally a 
mixture of marine and fluviatile shells is observed. 
In the lowest beds of gravel and sand, in contact with 
the chalk, flint hatchets, some perfect, others much 
rolled, have been found. Above this bed occurs a 
white, silicious sand, in which are found the remains 
of numerous fresh-water shells now common to the 
region, except Cyrena fluviatilis, which has disap- 
• peared from Europe, but inhabits the Nile and many 
parts of Asia. 
The flint implements found in this connection ex- 
hibit rude workmanship. The two prevailing forms 
are oval and pear-shaped. Their edges are more or 
les^ fractured or worn, either by use as instruments 
before they were buried in the gravel, or by being rolled 
in the river’s bed. Many of them are stained ochre- 
ous-yellow, while others have acquired white or brown 
tints, according to the matrix in which they have 
been enclosed. The surface in many instances is en- 
crusted with a film of carbonate of lime, while in 
others they exhibit those ramifying markings known 
as dendrites, which is a useful test of their antiquity. 
The most general lest, however, is a varnish-like or 
vitreous gloss, as contrasted with the dull aspect of 
freshly-fractured flints, a condition that has received 
the name ofy)atm(»; used, also, in Numismatic lore. 
