Discovery in the Quartier Latin The remains of an old Roman way have been found in the Quartier Latin. A number of curious flag-stones have been deposited in the cloisters of Saint-Séverin—itself an old church standing on the site of an oratory of the time of Childebert in the VIth century, and mostly dating in its present form from the XIIIth century. Saint-Séverin stands in a little street near the Quai, at the beginning of the Boulevard Saint-Michel, almost facing Notre Dame.
These dalles were found in the recent excavations in the Rue clu Cimetitre Saint-Benoit, at the angle of the Rue Saint-Jacques. The excavations were not conducted by archeologists. The banal necessity of laying down gas-pipes led to the discovery. Asa matter of fact, it is not the first time, that in this vicinity Roman vestiges have been unearthed. In 1920, in the Rue Saint-Jacques—in that part which runs from the Musée de Cluny with its Roman_remains to the Rue Cujas, with the Roman Artnes de Lutéce close by—sandstone blocks which had certainly belonged to an antique road were dug up. Last year similar stones were brought to light in the same rue at the corner of the Rue des Ecoles.
The greatest interest is being taken in these continual discoveries. A careful examination of the ground underneath the dalles shows that it was solidly constructed in stonework, rolled and compressed as are our roads to-day, with a certain amount of clay inter posed between the stones.
In the Galle-Roman epoch, that is to say, the third century or thereabouts, there existed in this part much marshland. It is considered that in order to cross these watery spaces it was found necessary to build a solid and fairly deep stone passage. Later a well-paved road was constructed. Afterwards the roadway was probably raised. There was fresh ballasting. Indeed, a number of different epochs with higher and higher roadways are indicated. The Roman occupation of Lutéce can be traced in its various stages.
Thedebris found in the topmost empierrement appears to date from the third century, but it is thought that the dalles which covered this last layer are more recent—probably being placed there in the fourth century.
The sandstone surface is regard-the final attempt to repair and rebuild the Genabum_ road. The dalles evidently could have been brought from any part of France,.but it is believed that the Romans found the material about the bed of the Seine. except that they are held in high honour. They fly through the air; instead of on a broomstick, they use bunches of panda leaves, and they hold " Sabbaths" and orgies at night.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.