246 
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
Italy. One of the favourite sites for collecting such 
specimens was a low hill, only about 100 feet high, which 
rises from the plain at Castenedolo, about six miles to 
the south-east of Brescia. Fig. 87 reproduces a section 
which he drew to explain the geological formation of the 
hill. The exact number and sequence of the strata do 
not concern us now. We note that the second stratum 
is a deposit of boulder clay indicating one — probably the 
greatest — of the Pleistocene glaciations. The strata which 
have a direct interest for us are those numbered 8 and 
9 : No. 8 a deposit of greenish-blue clay containing 
shells — about 5 feet in thickness ; No. 9 a deposit rich 
1 SOIL te--*,^,.^^^ 
2 RED CLAY r^"°^3^;;-.^ 
3 BguL^oER j^.j- -''^-^^:^ 
r 
:v. 
5 YELLOW SANO. 
6 CLAY f ' 
7 YELLOW SAND: 
-_/ 
8 BLUECLW I 
-••,■-> 
9 CORAL. K.IUJSCi 
I 
YELLOW SAND 
Fu;. 87.— Section of the 
(Colle de \'ento) at Castenedolo, near Brescia 
(Ragazzoni), 
in coral debris and in fossil shells. About the age of 
the coral stratum there is no dispute ; it was deposited 
when a Pliocene sea lapped against the southern flanks 
of the Alps. Were it to occur in England it would lie 
under the Red Crag of Suffolk, for it belongs to the older 
Pliocene formation. The overlying blue clay, deposited 
from still, muddy waters, is not much later in date than 
the coralline stratum. 
Late in the summer of i860, Professor Ragazzoni 
visited Castenedolo, and had descended the pit, cut at 
the foot of the hill (see fig. 87), and was searching the 
coralline stratum for Pliocene shells. As he searched he 
uncovered, on the face of the pit between the blue clay 
above and the coral stratum below, the fragmentary vault 
