Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/88

82 modest parks lies on the north bank of the Marne about twelve miles east of Paris. It is built on the southern slope of a low eminence, with a southern exposure.

Alighting from the train, and accompanied by Professor Paul Bar* bier, we drove to the house of the Abbé Alfred Bonno, to whom we had been referred as distinguished by his knowledge of the prehistoric archeology of Chelles and its neighborhood. We were most cordially met by the Abbé, and before accompanying us to the quarries he invited us to examine the large collection of prehistoric remains which was stored in the attic of his house. It comprised very full series of stone implements from the bottom to the top of the paleolithic, including

not only the Chellean and Acheulean, but also those of Moustierian age, up to the Magdalenian subdivisions, with some Solutrian lance-points. There were also numerous polished stone axes taken from the loam about the town, as well as Gallo-Roman bronze spear-heads, and finally iron weapons of war, as Chelles was once the center of the Merovingian kingdom. There were also fine knives of flint dug up from the gravels of the Fontainebleau forest. An examination, even if a hasty one, of such a rich local collection was the best possible preparation for our visit to the quarries.

We then drove to the neighborhood of the sand pits, walking to them from the end of the road, through the fields and by a shaded path, until we came out into an open space to the edge of the pits.