424 MIOCENE MAN. 



Khinoceros, and beneath a bed which contains the Mastodon, 

 Dinotherium, and Khinoceros. The enormous number of these 

 cracked flints also throws some doubt on their bein^ of human 



origin. 



In the Materiaux pour 1'Histoire de FHomme for 1870,* is 

 a figure of a flint flake found by M. Tardy in the miocene 

 beds of Aurillac (Auvergne), together with the remains of 

 Dinotherium giganteum, and Machairodus latidens. I have 

 not visited the locality, and cannot express any opinion as to 

 the age of the bed in which this interesting specimen was 

 discovered, but from the figure given there can be no reason- 

 able doubt that it is of human workmanship. M. Delaunay 

 also has called attention to a rib, found by him at Pouance' 

 (Maine et Loire), and belonging to a well-known miocene 

 species, the Halitherium fossile ;*f this bears certain marks 

 which closely resemble those which might have been made 

 by flint implements. M. Hamy gives a good figure of this 

 interesting specimen. Whether, however, we have conclusive 

 evidence of the existence of man in miocene times, is a ques- 

 tion on which archaeologists are still of different opinions. 



Sir Charles Lyell himself thinks that we may expect to 

 find the remains of man in the pliocene strata ; but there he 

 draws the line, and says that in miocene times, "had some 

 other rational being, representing man, then flourished, some 

 signs of his existence could hardly have escaped unnoticed, 

 in the shape of implements of stone or metal, more frequent 

 and more durable than the osseous remains of any of the 

 mammalia." 



Without expressing any opinion as to the mental condition 

 of our ancestors in the miocene period, it seems to me evident 

 that the argument derived from the absence of human remains, 

 whatever may be its value, is as applicable to pliocene as to 

 miocene times. On the other hand, no living species of land 

 * 1. c. p. 93. t Precis de Paleontologie Humaine, p. 58. 



