zi2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



you see, is easily distinguished from species now living ; by its size, firsl^ 

 for it is much larger than they; then by the form of its remarkably 

 recurved tusks ; finally and chiefly because, in place of the naked skin 

 of the elephants we know, he was covered with a thick wool and very 

 long hairs. 



Of all this we are certain ; for this elephant has been found pre- 

 served whole, with his skin and his hairs. At different times they 

 have discovered in the frozen earth of Siberia the dead bodies of these 

 animals. That country contains in such great numbers the tusks of 

 these antediluvian elephants, to employ a vulgar expression, that the 

 commerce in fossil ivory constitutes a considerable source of revenue, 

 and the state reserves a monopoly of it. 



I call special attention to this elephant, and we shall presently see 

 why. 



The Quaternary period ended as those that preceded it ; and then 

 began the present period. Since the time of its commencement, the 

 continents, the flora, and the faunse, have not undergone any consider- 

 able modifications. 



Nobody has ever questioned the existence of man at the beginning 

 of the present period, and some have even considered his appearance 

 as the characteristic feature of this period. But did man exist before ? 

 To employ the common expression, were there antediluvian men? In 

 other words, and to return to scientific language, is man the contem- 

 porary of those animal species among which appears the mammoth ? 

 May he be found, like the mammoth, in a fossil state ? 



Such is the question that has been often put, and which was long 

 answered in the negative. Down to these later times, the most emi- 

 nent men in Natural History, in Geology, in Paleontology, were all 

 agreed on this point, and I need only state that Cuvier, in particular, 

 never admitted the existence of fossil man. 



To-day we are led by many well-ascertained facts to answer this 

 question very differently. We are forced to admit that fossil man 

 does really exist, and that man was contemporary with those species of 

 animals I have been speaking of, especially with the mammoth. 



This is certainly one of the mot beautiful discoveries of modern 

 times ! The ground for it was laid by the establishment of a certain 

 number of facts observed in England, in Germany, in France. But 

 the honor of having brought decisive proofs, which convince everybody, 

 belongs incontestably to two Frenchmen to M. Boucher de Perthes, 

 and to M. Edouard Lartet. 



M. Boucher de Perthes, the eminent archaeologist of Abbeville, 

 while inspecting the excavations made in the earth around his native 

 village, at Menchecourt, and at Moulin-Qnignon, discovered stones fash, 

 ioned in a peculiar manner, and the same form was constantly repro- 

 duced. It was soon evident to him that this circumstance was not ac- 

 cidental, but that these stones owed their form to human industry. 



