of a bank at Abbeville; * after excavations made by military engineers,
while repairing the fortifications of the place. Here, in a bed
of gravel some eight feet below the surface, fossil bones of an elephant
were found; and, immediately below them, a flint knife; while at
a still lower level, stone axes were discovered.
The existence of human works in Gallic diluvian drift, appears to be
proven. Similar works have also been found in the alluvium of the
same localities: and, inasmuch as the best geologists say that each of
these formations may have occupied myriads of years, it will be interesting
to trace connexions between the two periods. This we shall
now attempt by an examination of some rude mementos of those
ancient times entombed in mother earth. In later Celtic sepulchres,
(besides stone axes, of regular shape and high polish,) numerous utensils
wrought from deers’ horns were discovered, of which we have
given specimens when treating of axes.
* 1st. Section o r Diluvian Beds at the Rampaets o r Abbeville.
F ig. 207.
F l i n t knives
a n d axes.
I. <
IM
I. Recent. — Thickness 6 feet.
a. Vegetable mould.
b. Rubble.
II. Diluvian formation (clysmien Br.).
A. First bed—1£. ' *
1. Yellow sand—argillo-ferruginous.
2. Silex, rolled and broken, mixed with
gravel.
3. Green sand.
B. Second bed—détritique Br.—9 00.
1111. Masses of silex, rolled and broken,
mixed with gravel and ferruginous
3 3 3.
4 4.
sand. Below this mass the silex
tends to form oblique beds.
The same siléx, forming a large band
in green sand.
The same silex, forming sinuous veins
in black sand, colored by carbon from
the decomposition of lignite.
Vein of white sand, containing a
layer of silex and bands of clay.
, Veins of green sand—16.
, Celtic instruments found in the diluv
i a n r n n s s
An instance of the early use of deers’ Fl°-m
horn, (mentioned by Dr. Wilson in his
Memoir on the pre-Celtic races of Scotland,
read before the British Association for
1850,) may be here cited. Remains of a
fossil whale have recently been exhumed
in Blair Drummond Moss, seven miles
above Stirling bridge, and twenty miles
from the nearest point of the river Forth
where by any possibility a whale could
be naturally stranded. Nevertheless, a
rude harpoon of deers’ horn, found along
with the cetaceous mammal, proves that
this fossilized whale pertains to, and falls
within, human historical periods; at the
same time that it points to an era subsequent
to man’s first colonization of the
British Isles.
Sketches of other instruments, made of
the same material, equally illustrate the hammer, of tuck-horn*
rude state of Celtic arts. Fig. 209, made
of an antler and part of the horn attached to the head, was used as
2nd. Transverse Section — A bbeville ramparts.
1. Recent.
a. Vegetable earth. * F ig . 208.
b. Transported earth.
II. Diluvian formation (clysmien Br.).
A. First bed.
1 1. Mixture of rolled silex and clay.
2. Lumps and oblique veins of white
sand, mixed with gravel and
silex.
3. Bed of ferruginous diluvian grit. XI..
Sand agglutinated by a cement
of hydrated iron.
B. Second bed. (Détritique Brong.)
1. Masses of rolled silex, mixed with
gravel.
2. Sinuous band of silex (rolled) in
black sand.
3. Mass of silex and gravel, in brown
ferruginous sand.
Celtic instruments contained in the
mass of silex, covered with ferruginous
sand ; one set 3£ metres
below the surface, the other at
5 metres 60 centimetres.