presence there in no other way than, that when the river rolled
along at that high elevation, and deposited great beds of sand,
these implements were someway lost in its waters, and became
buried in the gravel deposits.

Finally, we have to consider the age of the deposits. This is a
question that can be answered only by geologists, and we may be
sure that more than ordinary attention has been bestowed upon
them. The remains of many animals characteristic of the Glacial
Age were found in the beds at Abbeville. These include those of
the elephants, rhinoceros, hyenas, cave-bear, and cave-lion.<34>

In the formation of these gravel beds, ice has undoubtedly
played quite an important part. Bowlders that could have got
there only by the aid of ice, are found in several localities.
Evidence gathered from a great many different sources all
establish the fact that these gravels date as far back as the
close of the Glacial Age at least, and there are some reasons
for supposing them to be interglacial.

We can easily see that the melting away of the immense glaciers
that we have been describing would produce vast floods in the
rivers, and it is perhaps owing to the presence of such swollen
rivers that are due the great beds of surface soil, called loam
or loess, found in all the river valleys of France and
Germany.<35> These deposits frequently overlie the gravel beds.
They are then of a later date than the beds in which are found
such convincing proofs of the presence of man, and if they
themselves date from the close of the Glacial Age, it is no
longer a question whether the gravel beds themselves belong to