98 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his hands, and it falls strictly within the province of the archaeologist 

 to judge whether given specimens were so wrought or not; it rests 

 with the geologist to determine their stratigraphical or chronological 

 position, while the paleontologist can pronounce upon the age and 

 character of the associated fauna and flora. If left to himself the 

 archaeologist seems too prone to build up theories founded upon 

 form alone, irrespective of geological conditions. The geologist, 

 unaccustomed to archaeological details, may readily fail to see the 

 difference between the results of the operations of Nature and those 

 of art, and may be liable to trace the effects of man's handiwork in 

 the chipping, bruising, and wearing which in all ages result from 

 natural forces; but the united labors of the two, checked by those 

 of the paleontologist, can not do otherwise than lead toward sound 

 conclusions. 



It will perhaps be expected of me that I should on the present 

 occasion bring under review the state of our present knowledge with 

 regard to the antiquity of man; and probably no fitter place could 

 be found for the discussion of such a topic than the adopted home 

 of my venerated friend, the late Sir Daniel Wilson, who first intro- 

 duced the word " prehistoric " into the English language. Some 

 among us may be able to call to mind the excitement not only 

 among men of science but among the general public when, in 1859, 

 the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes and Dr. Bigollot in the 

 gravels of the valley of the Somme, at Abbeville and Amiens, were 

 confirmed by the investigations of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, 

 myself, and others, and the co-existence of man with the extinct 

 animals of the Quaternary fauna, such as the mammoth and woolly- 

 haired rhinoceros, was first virtually established. It was at the 

 same time pointed out that these relics belonged to a far earlier date 

 than the ordinary stone weapons found upon the surface, which usu- 

 ally showed signs of grinding or polishing, and that, in fact, there 

 were two stone ages in Britain. To these the terms " neolithic " 

 and " palaeolithic " were subsequently applied by Sir John Lubbock. 

 The excitement was not less when, at the meeting of this association 

 at Aberdeen in the autumn of that year, Sir Charles Lyell, in the 

 presence of the Prince Consort, called attention to the discoveries in 

 the valley of the Somme, the site of which he had himself visited, 

 and to the vast lapse of time indicated by the position of the imple- 

 ments in drift deposits a hundred feet above the existing river. 

 The conclusions forced upon those who examined the facts on the 

 spot did not receive immediate acceptance by all who were interested 

 in geology and archaeology, and fierce were the controversies on the 

 subject that were carried on both in the newspapers and before vari- 

 ous learned societies. It is at the same time instructive and amus- 



