The great marine formation of the coasts of Sicily, the pampas of South America, the sands of Sahara, the steppes of Eastern Russia, the travertine of Tuscany, are wellknown examples of quaternary deposits. But in addition to these, other much less regular deposits have been formed under circumstances very characteristic of the epoch in question. These characteristic phenomena are as follows:(1) Erratic deposits of the Alps, and of the north of Europe. (2) Diluvium of the valleys. seems (3) Filling of the caves and osseous breccia. (4) Certain appearance of man upon the earth. Glacial Period. Erratic Phenomena. It proved beyond a doubt that towards the close of the tertiary, or at the beginning of the quaternary epoch, the temperature of the northern hemisphere was sensibly lowered. As the atmosphere became moister and colder, the watery vapour was condensed, and frequent falls of snow, in the form of névé, covered the mountains, plains, and valleys of northern and central Europe with glaciers. This is known as the glacial period.' The Alpine traveller 'This term is perhaps incorrect, as it leads to the belief that there was but one glacial period. Many geologists, however, and notably M. Ch. Martins, reckon two glacial epochs, the first belonging to the older pleiocene period, the second to the more recent, that is, towards the beginning of the quaternary epoch. Certain geologists go so far as to maintain, that these glacial phenomena recurred periodically from the time of the most ancient fossiliferous strata down to that of the diluvian rocks properly so called. M. Julien, who has specially devoted himself to the study of glaciers, also admits two glacial epochs; the one beginning after the development of the mastodon, which became extinct in Europe at the end of the tertiary period, while it continued to live in America throughout quaternary times. This first glacial epoch was followed by the diluvian period, a consequence of the melting of these first glaciers, to which magnificent phenomenon the formation of valleys, the erosion of the soil, the transport of boulders, &c., must also be attributed. The glacial phenomena were repeated at the epoch of the Elephas primigenius, and have left their traces in the Vosges, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, as the first had done in Switzerland and in nor hern Europe. The interglacial epoch, that is, the intervening period, is represented by the submerged forest of Cromer, the leaf-impressed coal of Dürnten and of Utznach (canton of Zurich), the deposits of the Val d'Arno, &c. M. Julien considers the Alpine diluvium to be a re-formation of the sedi ERRATIC PHENOMENA. 13 is surprised to see blocks of granite or porphyry lying on the eastern flank of the Jura, or dispersed in the Swiss valleys; they are often of enormous size, and their mineralogic constituents differ completely from that of the calcareous beds or jurassic marl upon which they lie. Striated, grooved, and polished surfaces may be observed on these detached blocks, and upon the undisturbed rocks which shut in on either side the Alpine valleys. The transport of these colossal masses of rock to the heights where they may now be seen, and the scratching, grooving, and partial polish which may be observed upon them, are now generally admitted to be the work of extinct glaciers, which in their slow progress, and by means of the stones imbedded in their mass, have polished, and as it were, engraved the rocks with which their movement brought them in contact. The erratic blocks lying upon peaks often very far from their original site were also brought thither by the glaciers of that period. At some definite period a rise in the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere brought about the melting of the ice, and as a natural consequence all the foreign bodies which were borne along by the glacier were deposited on the sides of the mountains or in the valleys. The action of the floods, caused by the melting of the same ice, sufficiently explains also the presence of glacial mud, the fragments of rock, the gravel and waterworn pebbles which are to be found at the foot of the Alps, and in the neighbouring valleys (moraines). The erratic phenomena in the north, more complex and more extensive than those of the Alps, are evidently due to analogous causes. In this case the floating ice from the arctic regions transported immense blocks, of which the mineralogic constituents sufficiently prove their foreign ment of the first period, to which he also attributes the upper grey and red diluvium, and the lower grey diluvium, or diluvium of the plains. He attributes to the second period the diluvium of the Vosges, and he connects the Loess with the melting of the glaciers of the Rhine which belong to this period, and which still subsisted when those of the Vosges had completely disappeared. (Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire primitive et naturelle de l'homme, t. v. p. 374.) origin, to a great distance from the place of their formation. These blocks, known in Germany under the name of Findlinge (foundlings), are scattered abundantly over the plains of Russia, Poland, Prussia, and even of England. Nearly similar phenomena took place in North America. Deposits of sand, gravel, and sea shells, known under the name of drift, are to be found in the neighbourhood of these blocks, which are for the most part angular. Everything seems to prove that these deposits, which extend over a great part of Northern Europe, starting from the Scandinavian peninsula, were formed at the bottom of the sea, by which, during or immediately after the first glacial epoch, the greater part of North America, the British Isles, and Scandinavia was covered. Diluvium of the Valleys. The ordinary erratic phenomena, we are told by M. Leymerie, took place principally among mountains and in their immediate neighbourhood, and the glaciers were the principal agents, or at least took a direct part in their production. The various phenomena which are known collectively as diluvium, are on the contrary chiefly to be observed in the plains, and they owe their existence to river-floods. Two distinct and contrary effects are produced by these phenomena―the formation of those valleys known as valleys of erosion, and the partial filling of these same valleys by the diluvian waters bearing along in their current the débris from the mountains (gravel, waterworn pebbles, sediment of mud and sand, usually impregnated with oxide of iron or calcareous matter), which they deposit upon the plain. The two sorts of diluvium are generally distinguished as the grey and the red diluvium, the latter more recent than the former. Lastly, an important deposit of an homogeneous greyish-yellow sediment, known in Alsace under the name of lehm (loam) and on the other side of the Rhine as loess, covers the stony deposit which constitutes the true diluvium to a depth of sixty or eighty yards. M. Favre has established between the diluvian beds of the north-west of France, and those of the valley of the Rhine, a parallel which it may be useful to reproduce QUATERNARY ROCKS. 15 here. If, as we have no reason to doubt, this parallel be exact, it follows that the remains of human industry found in the valleys of the Somme, of the Seine, and of the Marne, correspond to the lower diluvium of the Rhine valley, a deposit far more ancient than the glaciers of the Vosges, since it is separated from the latter by the mean diluvium of the Rhine, or red diluvium of the Seine valley.1 QUATERNARY BEDS. In the North-west of France. UPPER DEPOSIT.-Lehm or loess. MEAN DEPOSIT.-Sand and gravel, known as red dilurium (valleys of the Somme, Seine and Marne). LOWER DEPOSIT.-Gravel transported from a distance, containing flints of human workmanship, and fossil remains of Elephas primigenius, rhinoceros, stag, horse, ox, &c. In the Rhine Valley. Lehm or loess in the plain, moraines Gravel, pebbles, composed ex- 2 The diluvian, or quaternary, epoch, is further characterised, as we have before remarked, by the deposits in the caves, by the formation of osseous breccia, and by the certain appearance of man upon the earth. The circumstantial details into which we shall shortly enter allow and even constrain us to confine ourselves for the moment to these general outlines. With the exception of a few species, extinct or migrated,3 the quaternary fauna and flora offer the most striking analogies, or more strictly speaking, the most complete identity, with the fauna and flora of the present day. 1 A. Favre, Sur l'existence de l'homme sur la terre antérieurement à l'apparition des anciens glaciers. (Bibliothèque universelle de Genève; Archives, t. viii. p. 200, 1860.) 2 The osseous breccia are heaps composed of angular fragments of rock and various fossil bones, cemented together by calcareous or ferruginous mud. These osseous breccia occur in the bone caves, and in the numerous holes or fissures which abound on the coasts of the Mediterranean (Cette, Antibes, Nice, Gibraltar, &c.). The principal species of the quaternary beds which are extinct at the present day are the mammoth, the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, the great bear, the great cat, the rave hyena, and the Irish elk. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL ROCKS. A.-Aqueous rocks formed at the bottom of seas, and stratified, or disposed in layers. II. THE MEANING OF THE WORD FOSSIL AS APPLIED TO MAN AND OTHER ORGANISED BEINGS. The species of man whom we propose to study is commonly known as fossil1 man, primitive man, pre Prehistoric man is frequently but wrongly designated fossil man. This last epithet suggests the idea of an extinct species; applied to |