5 i2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



exclude the Reutelian implements ; but among these we discover 

 hollow scrapers, resembling the Tasmanian spoke-shaves, and 

 still sharp enough to serve their purpose fairy well. It would 

 therefore seem probable that Reutelian man was in possession 

 of a wooden spear. 



The resemblance of some of the Reutelian implements of 

 the Pleistocene epoch to the Tasmanian is certainly very;great. 

 Differences no doubt exist ; but reviewing the evidence as a 

 whole it seems sufficient to show that, prior to the advent of 

 Chellean man, Europe was overrun by races whose state 

 of culture was not far removed from that of the now extinct 

 Tasmanians ; as to the physical characters of these races we 

 know absolutely nothing. 



Evidently the last word has not been said on this question. 

 Opinions are still at variance, and we must await some fortunate 

 discovery as the final arbiter. 



IV 



Lower Paleolithic Man 



If, suddenly transported to the beginning of the palaeolithic 

 epoch, we could survey the face of the earth as it then appeared, 

 we might be surprised at first by its strange and unfamiliar 

 aspect ; but on closer inspection, as we traced one by one 

 its leading features and identified the several continents and 

 seas, we should perceive that the general plan remained the 

 same and that the details alone were changed. 



These details, however, were neither few nor unimportant. 

 The whole continent of Europe had enlarged its bounds, and 

 the Atlantic broke against a shore lying far to the west of 

 the British Isles, along a line where soundings now show 

 a depth of ioo fathoms. It looks as though the ocean had 

 sunk 600 feet. The Irish Sea, the English Channel, and the 

 German Ocean, thus deserted, formed wide valley plains, 

 watered by many noble rivers. The Rhine, with its tributaries 

 the Elbe and the Thames, swept in wide meanders to the 

 north till it opened into the sea not far south of the Faeroe 

 Isles ; the Seine, gathering the waters of the south of England 

 and north of France in its flow, continued its course through 

 the fertile plains of the English Channel till it entered the 

 Atlantic a hundred miles west of the farthest point of Brittany 



