S e c t i o n o f t h e G b a v e e - B e d s a t M e n c h e c o e i i t . *
Fio. 206.
P 1 H K
. ■ If
* Modem, or r I. Superficial vegetable earth — humus.
Alluvial. \ II. Lower vegetable — argillaceous.
III. Brown clay.
Diluvian, or IV. Upper bed of silex— rolled and broken, with lumps
Clysmian of - of white marl and rolled chalk, in amygdaloid
Brongniart. fragments.
Y. Compact ferruginous clay.
a superior level: because, in such cases, some trace must have been
left of their occurrence. ÍTo doubt exists that those axes had lain in
the same position ever since the fossilized bones were there, or that
they were brought thither by the same causes.
Many other excavations were examined, as opportunities occurred;
and stones bearing unmistakeable evidence of human workmanship
were discovered so frequently in the drift, as to establish the fact
beyond all room for question. The occurrence of similar axes in
sepulchres of the Celtic era, might otherwise support the idea that
they had found their way by subsidence from upper to lower levels;
but the character of the formation, as before remarked, renders such
contingencies highly improbable, if not impossible; and it seems
much more likely that old diluvian remains were discovered by a
more modern people, who adopted these ancient tools in later
funebral ceremonies. But it is not necessary to assume either hypothesis:
the same wants would suggest similar utensils. Forms, venerated
as symbolical of any religious rite or sentiment, are very permanent,
especially among a rude people: and, whether we suppose
the more ancient race to have been entirely destroyed, and succeeded
by another after a catastrophe, or the same type to have continued
through that long period which must have elapsed between
the diluvian and the Celtic epochas, the circumstance that the same
instruments are found in both positions is .not attended with any
insuperable difficulties. Indeed, Indian axes, discovered by Mr.
Squier in our Western mounds, are so precisely similar in form and
material to those we have been describing, that one should not be
much surprised at seeing them adduced, hy some sapient advocate
of the unity of human races, as decisive proofs of the Celtic origin
of American Indians.
The annexed cuts (Figs. 20T and 208) represent different sections
Clysmien
Limoneux of ■<
Brongniart.
Limono-dé-
{
Clayey and
Clysmian
detritic.
VI. Marly clay, with broken flints, white externally.
VII. Marly sand, containing bones of mammifers.
f VIII. Beds of rolled chalk, in pisiform fragments, mixed
with Biliceous gravel.
IX. White clay.
X. White sand.
XI. Gray sandy clay.
XII. Clay and sand, ochry, in "*ins.
XIII. Pure gray clay.
. XIV. Ochry vein.
XV. Alternate beds, slightly oblique, with sha’Js and diluvian
bones.
XVI. Lower bed of flints, rolled and broken.
, Sandy.
1 Flinty.
These marks show the position of the flint-axes.