with the remams of extinct species, in beds of a late Geological Period, May 19, 1859), while Mr. Evans described the implements themselves in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries (1860).
Shortly afterwards Mr. Prestwich returned to Amiens and Abbeville, accompanied by Messrs. Godwin Austen, J. W. Flower, and R. W. Mylne. In the same year Sir Charles Lyell, whose opinion on the subject was naturally expected with great interest, visited the now celebrated localities. In 1860, I made my first visit with Mr. Busk and Captain Galton, under the guidance of Mr. Prestwich, while Sir Roderick Murchison, Professors Henslow, Ramsay, Rogers, Messrs. H. Christy, Rupert Jones, James Wyatt, and other geologists, followed on the same errand. M. L'Abbé Cochet, therefore, in his "Rapport adressé a Monsieur le Sénateur Préfet de la Seine-Inférieure," (1860) does no more than justice to our countrymen, when after a well-merited tribute of praise to M. Boucher de Perthes, and Dr. Rigollot, he adds, "Mais ce sont les Géologues Anglais, en tète desquels il faut placer d'abord M.M. Prestwich et Evans, puis M. M. Flower, Mylne, et Godwin Austen, et enfin Sir C. Lyell . . . . qui . . . . ont fini par élever à la dignité de fait scientifique la découverte de M. Boucher de Perthes."
Soon after his return, Mr. Prestwich addressed a communication to the Academy of Sciences through M. Elie de Beaumont, in which he urged the importance of these discoveries, and expressed a hope that they would stimulate "les géologues de tous les pays à une étude encore plus approfondie des terrains quaternaires." The subject being thus brought prominently before the geologists of Paris, M. Gaudry, well known for his interesting researches in Greece, was sent to examine the weapons themselves, and the localities in which they were found.
M. Gaudry was so fortunate as to find several flint weapons in situ, and hi» report, which entirely confirmed the statements made by M. Boucher de Perthes, led others to visit the valley of the Somme, among whom I may mention M.M. de Quatrefages, Lartet, Collomb, Hebert, de Verneuil, and G. Pouchet.
In the "Antiquités Celtiques," M. Boucher de Perthes suggested some gravel pits near Grenelle at Paris, as being, from their position and appearance, likely places to contain flint implements. M. Gosse of Geneva has actually found flint implements in these pits, being, I believe, the first discovery of this nature in the valley of the Seine.[1] In that of the Oise a small hatchet haa been found by M. Peigné Delacourt at Précy, near Creil.
Dr. Noulet has also found flint weapons with remains of extinct animals at Clermont, near Toulouse.
- ↑ M. L'Abbé Cochet states (l. c. p. 8) that similar weapons have been found at Sotteville, near Rouen, and are deposited in the Musée d'Antiquités. There seems, however, to be some mistake about these specimens, at least M. Pouchet, who received us at Rouen with the greatest conrtesy, was quite unaware of any such discovery.
