Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
When we ascend the valley of the Somme, from Abbeville to Amiens, a
distance of about 25 miles, we observe a repetition of all the same
alluvial phenomena which we have seen exhibited at Menchecourt and its
neighbourhood, with the single exception of the absence of marine shells
and of Cyrena fluminalis. We find lower-level gravel, such as Number 2,
Figure 7, and higher-level alluvium, such as Number 3, the latter rising
to 100 feet above the plain, which at Amiens is about 50 feet above the
level of the river at Abbeville. In both the upper and lower gravels,
as Dr. Rigollot stated in 1854, flint tools and the bones of extinct
animals, together with river shells and land shells of living species,
abound.
[Illustration: Figures 18, 19 and 20. Elephas]
(FIGURE 18.* Elephas primigenius.
Penultimate molar, lower jaw, right side, one-third of
natural size, Pleistocene. Co-existed with Man.)
(FIGURE 19.* Elephas antiquus, Falconer.
Penultimate molar, lower jaw, right side, one-third of natural
size, Pleistocene and Newer Pliocene. Co-existed with Man.)
(FIGURE 20.* Elephas meridionalis, Nesti.
Penultimate molar, lower jaw, right side, one-third of natural
size, Newer Pliocene, Saint Prest, near Chartres, and
Norwich Crag. Not yet proved to have coexisted with Man.)
(* For Figure 20 I am indebted to M. Lartet, and Figure 18
will be found in his paper in "Bulletin de la Societe
Geologique de France" March 1859. Figure 19 is from Falconer
and Cautley "Fauna Sivalensis.")
Immediately below Amiens, a great mass of stratified gravel, slightly
elevated above the alluvial plain of the Somme, is seen at St. Roch,
and half a mile farther down the valley at Montiers. Between these two
places a small tributary stream, called the Celle, joins the Somme. In
the gravel at Montiers, Mr. Prestwich and I found some flint knives, one
of them flat on one side, but the other carefully worked, and exhibiting
many fractures, clearly produced by blows skilfully applied. Some of
these knives were taken from so low a level as to satisfy us that this
great bed of gravel at Montiers, as well as that of the contiguous
quarries of St. Roch, which seems to be a continuation of the same
deposit, may be referred to the human period. Dr. Rigollot had already
mentioned flint hatchets as obtained by him from St. Roch, but as
none have been found there of late years, his statement was thought to
require confirmation. The discovery, therefore, of these flint knives
in gravel of the same age was interesting, especially as many tusks of
a hippopotamus have been obtained from the gravel of St. Roch--some of
these recently by Mr. Prestwich; while M. Garnier of Amiens has procured
a fine elephant's molar from the same pits, which Dr. Falconer refers to
Elephas antiquus, see Figure 19. Hence I infer that both these animals
co-existed with Man.
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