Human Remains in Loess near Maestricht.
The banks of the Meuse at Maestricht, like those of the Rhine at Bonn and Cologne, are slightly elevated above the level of the alluvial plain. On the right bank of the Meuse, opposite Maestricht, the difference of level is so marked, that a bridge, with many arches, has been constructed to keep up, during the flood season, a communication between the higher parts of the alluvial plain, and the hills or bluffs which bound it. This plain is composed of modern loess, undistinguishable in mineral character from that of higher antiquity, before alluded to, and entirely without signs of successive deposition, and devoid of terrestrial or fluviatile shells. It is extensively worked for brick-earth to the depth of about eight feet. The bluffs before alluded to often consist of a terrace of gravel, from thirty to forty feet in thickness, covered by an older loess, which is continuous as we ascend the valley to Liége. In the suburbs of that city, patches of loess are seen at the height of two hundred feet above the level of the Meuse. The table-land in that region, composed of Carboniferous and Devonian rocks, is about four hundred and fifty feet high, and is not overspread with loess.
A terrace of gravel covered with loess has been mentioned as existing on the right bank of the Meuse at Maestricht. Answering to it another is also seen on the left bank below that city, and a promontory of it projecting into the alluvial plain of the Meuse, and approaching to within a hundred yards of the river, was cut through during the excavation of a canal running from Maestricht to Hocht, between the years 1815 and 1823. This section occurs at the village of Smeermass, and is about sixty feet deep, the lower forty feet consisting of stratified gravel, and the upper of twenty feet of loess. The number of molars, tusks, and bones (probably parts of entire
