vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 310 



ticular caves and river basins and the accumula- 

 tion of the debris left by their neolithic successors. 

 And, in spite of all the warnings against negative 

 evidence afforded by the history of geology, some 

 have very positively asserted that this means a 

 complete break between the Quaternary and the 

 Recent populations — that the Quaternary popula- 

 tion followed the retreating ice northwards and 

 left behind them a desert which remained unpeo- 

 pled for ages. Other high authorities, on the con- 

 trary, have maintained that the races of men who 

 now inhabit Europe may all be traced back to the 

 Great Ice Age. When a conflict of opinion of 

 this kind obtains among reasonable and instructed 

 men, it is generally a safe conclusion that the evi- 

 dence for neither view is worth much. Certainly 

 that is the result of my own cogitations with re- 

 gard to both the hiatus doctrine (in its extreme 

 form) and its opposite — though I think the latter 

 by much the more likely to turn out right. But I 

 hesitate to adopt it on the evidence which has 

 been obtained up to this time. 



No doubt, human bones and skulls of various 

 types have been discovered in close proximity to 

 paleolithic implements and to skeletons of quater- 

 nary quadrupeds; no doubt, if the bones and skulls 

 in question were not human, their contemporaneity 

 would hardly have been questioned. But, since 

 they are human, the demand for further evidence 

 really need not be ascribed to mere conservative 



