11 A 11 D W I C K E' S S C IE N C E- G O S S I P. 



As the laud gradually rose, and tlie cliinate be- 

 came more geuial, and toucd dowu to its present 

 mildaess, the waters of the river shrank in volume, 

 until only the present channel was occupied. But 

 the heights to which we river-gravels rise above 

 the water not only indicate how old we are, but, 

 in some cases, go back as far as the commenee- 

 ment of the original scooping-out of the valley 

 itself. 



All this would be very interesting in itself, as 

 geological action connecting the most recent of the 

 great physical changes with those we see in opera- 

 tion around us. But the interest of these valley- 

 gravels is still more enhanced when my listeners 

 understand that it is in th.emt[ia.tth.ejirsi evidences 

 of Man^ s appearance on the earth are met with! All 

 my brother story-tellers have had their say, and 

 many of them have described the commonest of the 

 animals and plants of their day; but not one of 

 them mentioned that mankind was living at the 

 time. It was reserved for so humble and common- 

 place an object as a Gravel-pit to unfold the most 

 important of all geological discoveries. Men have 

 speculated as to their original ancestors living as 

 far back as the Miocene period, but they have 

 adduced no facts in support. On the contrary, I 

 yield nothing but facts, and those in great abundance. 

 In the gravel-pits you meet with the chipped flint 

 implements, of which you have doubtless already 

 heard. They are imbedded, as stones, along with 

 the other material, having been brought down by 

 the ancient river in the same way as pebbles. 



But they are undoubtedly of human workmanship. 

 This cannot be gainsaid. You see this at once by 

 the flints having been carefully, and in many cases 

 nrtisticalUj, chipped dowu to a cutting edge all round. 

 They are generally spearhead-shaped, and about 

 six to nine inches long. Had they not been con- 

 nected with the question of the antiquity of Man, 

 you would never have heard a word said about their 

 not being of human manufacture. As it is, iu order 

 to steer clear of this disagreeable truth, many have 

 invented all kinds of ingenious hypotheses to account 

 for the flints getting chipped iu this regular fashion. 

 But it requires far more faith to believe in these 

 theories than it does in the other common-sense 

 inference. 



The most damaging fact to them is the identity in 

 pattern of these cut and chipped flints, wherever 

 they may be met with. Another important incident 

 is this — the chipped flints are only found in the 

 valley-gravels, or in deposits of the same age. If 

 they have been chipped by accident, there is no 

 reason in the world why they should not be found 

 in gravel- pits of much older date. 



Prom the time when primitive Man used these 

 flint weapons for almost every purpose, slaying wild 

 animals with them, cutting dowu trees and scooping 

 them out for canoes, making holes in the ice with 



them for fishing purposes— since tl;cuyou can trace 

 the whole history of ofl'ensive and defensive weapons. 

 Antiquaries and geologists call these most ancient 

 of implements PalaoUthlc, — meaning, in Greek, that 

 they are the oldest known ; and the age in whicli 

 they were produced consequently is known by the 

 same name. When Man first appeared, if we are 

 to reason by the remains with which we find these 

 implements associated, the Yroolly-haired Elephant, 

 or Mammoth, and the Woolly-haired Rhinoceros, 

 were both natives of Great Britain. It is frequently 

 objected that you do not find the liones of man 

 associated with these tools ; but the reason is not 

 difficult to find. 



Eemember how few of the bones, &c. of the ancient 

 Romans and Saxons are met with, in proportion 

 to the number of more enduring ornaments, coins, 

 &c. they left behind them. Then consider that 

 the valley-gravels lie in the line of greatest drainage 

 toward the river, and, as they arc porous, the sur- 

 face water percolates through them on its way to 

 the lowest level. Any particle of carbonate of lime, 

 whether in the form of bone or not, which w;is 

 deposited in these gravels, would thus be dissolved 

 away. Hence it is that, although the huge bones 

 of elephants, &c., were undoubtedly buried up in the 

 same gravels, vrc find few or no traces of them. 

 The comm.oncst of their remains are tectli and^wsfe, 

 whose dentine and ivory structure saved them from 

 the gradual destruction to which the frailer parts of 

 the skeleton vrere liable. 



Eortuuately, there were other agencies at work 

 during the same period, which v.-ere conservative 

 rather than destructive. In the fissures of lime- 

 stone rocks, where water is percolating, that water 

 is usually charged with carbonate of lime. Every 

 drop of water that evaporates on the surface of the 

 walls of a chasm or natural hollow leaves its con- 

 tained particle of lime behind. This process is 

 always going on, until there has been left on the 

 walls a great fold or layer of what \% a \Vit^. stalactite. 

 The water drips on the floor, and there a portion is 

 evaporated, the lime being left behind. 



As you may guess, the process is marvellously 

 slow, but the layer thus formed on the floor is called 

 stalufjiiiite. It is not difficult to see that anything 

 lying on such a cavern-floor would be iucrusted over, 

 and eventually covered up. This is what I call a 

 conservative process. Now at the time the valley- 

 gra.vels were forming, savage man was glad to avail 

 himself of any shelter, and the natural caves and 

 hollows of the earth were anxiously sought after, as 

 they are now by the lowest tribes of mankind else- 

 where. To such places as Kent's Cavern, Brixham 

 Cavern, &c., savagea resorted, bringing with them 

 the fruits of the chase. Here you may find the 

 bones of animals which had been split open in order 

 to extract the marrow, as well as [the flint knives 

 and implements, of exactly the same kind as those 



