THE FOSSIL MAN. 353 



even less, is immaterial, and probably never can be absolutely deter- 

 mined. The chronological scale is too uncertain, with conditions vary- 

 ing according to locality and circumstances, to give ground for great 

 hope of success. Still, who shall venture to set a limit to the triumphs 

 of science ? The methods of prehistoric archaeology are scientific ; 

 its votaries are steadily increasing in numbers ; its progress has been 

 marvelously rapid, and we may with confidence await the result. 



The most remote historical date thus far even approximately deter- 

 mined is that of the early dynasties of Egypt, although even on this 

 point the authorities differ by as much as a thousand years. Taking, 

 however, the lowest computation, we find, some four thousand years 

 b. c, a flourishing civilization established in Egypt, with a condition of 

 the arts, especially of statuary and of architecture, fully able to stand 

 the test of comparison with those of the present day, but which after- 

 ward steadily degenerated under the iron rule of the priesthood. This 

 date has been reached by the light of written inscriptions, so that the 

 history of mankind has thus been carried back to a point of time as 

 remote as that of his creation, according to the belief of our fathers. 

 Now, a flourishing civilization with admirable arts, and especially a 

 fixed literary language, presupposes ages of development and progress, 

 so that we see the " prehistoric man " thrust thus at least one stage 

 into "the dark backward and abysm of time." But only monuments 

 inscribed by Nature's own hand are our helpers in the arduous task of 

 attempting to measure by a scale of centuries the duration of the ex- 

 istence of "the fossil man." The slow excavation of certain river-beds 

 during the present geological period, thus bringing to light in their 

 banks relics of man, above which the soil has accumulated in depths 

 varying according to known historical periods ; the secular growth of 

 peat-mosses and of films of stalagmite ; the deposit of cones of detri- 

 tus at the mouths of mountain-torrents ; the leisurely filling up of lakes 

 by the accumulation of soil washed down from neighboring mountains 

 such are the sole standards of measurement that have thus far been 

 devised for the careful computations or the wild guesses of those who 

 have hitherto essayed the difficult problem. Its final determination 

 must properly be left to the geologists, some of whom regard the 

 Quaternary period as more justly to be assigned to the present stage of 

 the earth's history than as constituting a past geological epoch rightly 

 so called. But the discovery of traces of early man in regions widely 

 remote from each other, and especially in countries where the earliest 

 civilizations have arisen, is a complete answer to the objections of 

 those who would make of " the fossil man " only a savage race local- 

 ized in western Europe in times not far removed from those of which 

 history takes cognizance. 



Among the many attempts that have been made to reach a solution 

 of the problem, the most satisfactory, perhaps, have been the system- 

 atic explorations that have been carried on without intei*ruption since 

 vol. xvii. 23 



