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In cases where tusks alone have been found unaccompanied by molar teeth, such specific determinations may be uncertain; but if any one specimen be correctly named, the occurrence of the mammoth and reindeer in the Scotch boulder-clay, as both these quadrupeds are known to have been contemporary with Man, favours the idea which I have already expressed, that the close of the glacial period in the Grampians may have coincided in time with the existence of Man in those parts of Europe where the climate was less severe, as, for example, in the basins of the Thames, Somme, and Seine, in which the bones of many extinct mammalia are associated with flint implements of the antique type.
Lindsay Carnagie informed me that he had examined many burrows over a stone-quarry in Scotland, where the overlying boulder-clay and mould had recently been cleared away, and a little vertical cliff thus left.
The tide may be out, and only puny waves tumbling on the wet sand, and yet it is impossible to refrain from feeling that the very peacefulness of the scene is sinister, and the waters are merely digesting their last meal of boulder-clay before satisfying a fresh appetite.
All we know is that the icebergs brought with them vast quantities of mud, which sank to the bottom, and covered up that pleasant old forest-land in what is called boulder-clay; clay full of bits of broken rock, and of blocks of stone so enormous, that nothing but an iceberg could have carried them.
Equally rough specimens are found in the gravels above the boulder-clay, and even among neolithic finds. Still these very antique implements certainly do seem to belong to an earlier stage of civilization, if we regard them as examples of the best workmanship of their makers."
In the valley sides around the town of Brandon, in England, "are preserved patches of brick-earth, which are valuable as affording the only workable clay in the district. Whenever these beds are well exposed they are seen to underlie the chalky boulder-clay of glacial age.
This period, probably anterior to the earliest traces yet brought to light of the human race, may have coincided with the submergence of England, and the accumulation of the boulder-clay of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Bedfordshire, before mentioned.
Smith of Jordanhill informs me that a rude ornament made of cannel coal has been found on the coast in the parish of Dundonald, lying 50 feet above the sea-level, on the surface of the boulder-clay or till, and covered with gravel containing marine shells.
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