long enough to admit
the formation of great beds of peat in some portions. Peat is formed by
the decomposition of vegetable growth. Its growth is in all cases slow,
depending entirely upon local circumstances. European scholars who have
made peat formation a special study assure us that to form such immense
beds as occur near Abbeville, several thousand years are required, even
under the most favorable conditions.

Yet we would be scarcely willing to rest such important conclusions as
the foregoing on the researches of one individual, or in one locality.
As already stated, DePerthes made his discoveries public in 1847. Yet
they were so opposed to all that had been believed previously, that but
few took the pains to investigate for themselves. In 1853, Dr. Rigollot,
of Amiens, who had been skeptical as to DePerthes, commenced to look
for himself in the gravel beds at St. Acheul, about nine miles below
Abbeville. As might be expected, he was soon convinced.

Picture of Paleolithic Flint, England.------

It may be said that the scientific world formally accepted the new
theory when such English scientists as Evans, Falconer, Lyell, and
Prestwich reported in its favor. Since that time, many discoveries
of ancient implements have been made at various places in France and
England under circumstances similar to those in the valley of the Somme.
In England they have been found along almost all the rivers in the
southern and south-eastern part. One class of discoveries there gives
us new ideas as to the extent of time that has passed since they were
deposited. That is where they occur in gravel beds having no connection
with the present system of rivers. In one case the gravel forms a
hill fifteen feet high, situated in the midst of a swampy district,
surrounded on all sides by low, flat surfaces. Several such instances
could be given; but, in all such cases, we can not doubt that, somewhere
near, there once rolled the waters of an ancient river, that man once
hunted along its banks, and that, owing to some natural cause, the
waters forsook their ancient bed--and that since then, in the slow
course of ages, the action of running water has removed so much of the
surface of the land near there, that we can not guess at its ancient
configuration: we only know, from scattered patches of gravel, that we
are standing on the banks of an ancient water-course.

One instance, illustrative of the great change that has come over the