Mr. Carruthers said that as the rhizome, whether it was that of Aspidium or Osmunda, was an aerial, and not a subterraneous rhizome, it must have been carried to its present position; and it consequently indicated, as Col. Lane Fox had pointed out, the direction of the stream.
Mr. Flower regarded Col. Lane Fox's memoir as of great interest, as affording an additional instance of that perfect similarity of these deposits, whether in France or England, which in places so wide apart might reasonably be taken to indicate a common origin. It was indeed generally assumed that these deposits were brought down by rivers; but this, according to his view, was by no means certain. Col. Lane Fox had described the valley as 412 miles wide; but there was at Croydon, 12 miles distant, a deposit of gravel capped with loess, containing elephant-remains, and exactly resembling the Thames-valley gravels, and communicating with them. This evidently formed part of the Thames-valley system, whatever that system might be taken to be; and if so, he thought it incredible that the loess should have been distributed by river-action over an area 12 or 15 miles in width. In conclusion, he was quite content to adhere to the opinion held by the French geologists, and formerly by several of our own most able writers, that the distribution of these superficial drifts was in the first instance diluvial rather than fluvial.
Col. A. Lane Fox, in reply, pointed out the artificial character of the implements, and the manner in which the mammalian remains occurred. He thought that some part of the brick-earth of the lower terraces might have been deposited at the bottom of a lake.
Mr. Busk, in proof of the animal-remains not having been brought from a distance, showed that remains of the same animal were found in close proximity to each other.
Prof. Ramsay made some remarks on the undoubtedly artificial character of the implements, and on their position at the base of the gravels. The origin of the Thames valley he had already maintained to be of Postmiocene age; and though there was at present no evidence of man's existence at that time, it was still possible. Of the extreme antiquity of the human race there could, however, be no doubt.
[Communicated by permission of the Director General of the Geological Surveys of the United Kingdom.]
[Plate XXX.]
Introduction.
The materials on which the remarks are founded which I now have the honour of submitting to the Society, have been collected by me
