350 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE. 



the weapon found by Mr. Conyers has lain unnoticed for 

 more than double that time; that the discoveries by M. 

 Boucher de Perthes have been ignored for fifteen years ; that 

 the numerous cases in which caves have contained the remains 

 of men together with those of extinct animals have been 



o 



suppressed or explained away : these facts show how deeply 

 rooted was the conviction that man belonged altogether to a 

 more recent order of things; and whatever other accusation 

 may be brought against them, geologists can at least not be 

 said to have hastily accepted the theory of the co-existence of 

 the human race with the now extinct Pachydermata of Western 

 Europe. 



Though, however, geologists are now almost unanimous as 

 to the great antiquity of these curious weapons, still it is not 

 necessary that they should be received as judges ; I only pro- 

 pose to summon them as witnesses. 



The questions to be decided may be stated as follows : 



1st. Are the so-called flint implements of human work- 

 manship ? 



2ndly. Are the flint implements of the same age as the 

 beds in which they are found, and the bones of the extinct 

 animals with which they occur ? 



ordly. What are the conditions under which these beds 

 were deposited ? And how far are we justified in imputing 

 to them a great antiquity ? 



To the first two of these questions an affirmative answer 

 would be given by every geologist. " For more than twenty 

 years," says another competent witness Prof. Eamsay "I 

 have daily handled stones, whether fashioned by nature or 

 art, and the flint hatchets of Amiens and Abbeville seem to 

 me as clearly works of art as any Sheffield whittle/'* But 

 best of all, an hour or two spent in examining the forms of 



* Athenaeum, July 16, 1859. 



