r>G2 ANMAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



8till fmlhcr behind. The invo<!ti;^ation of tlie ccviiiiienconipnt of 

 hiiJiian liistorv will hardly havo tlu! i)rorogative of bciii"^ liln'ratcd 

 fioin t\u'. gradual advaiu-o wliicii i)a]a'()iit()lo<:^y has followed up. 

 The discoviTV at Auiitrnac pla^-cs the ajje of our laUe dw('llin;>[3 

 at a comparalivel}' late periotl, aUhou<;h ahnost iuinniliately under 

 our peat beds, with their rich treasures, similar anti<|uilies are 

 fnnnd ; nay, still older p'lnains are met with only a little deej)er 

 (in the slaty brown-enal <<i Diiinten, i)erliaps forty fi'et under the 

 bed of the lake of rfiiHikon) tiian those of Auri<^nae, which have 

 there been f^iiawed by hyieuas, after h:ivin<;f been depjioiled of 

 their marrow (like the bones of llobonhausen) by human hands. 

 This la.-t faet would also point out to us the plaee where we havo 

 to look for the remains of the ancestors of the lake settlers, 

 namely, under the jjlaeier moraines; for it is manifest that the 

 jjcople who inhaliited the j^rolto of Aiui^^nac were older than the 

 ixtension of the glaciers, and conse<]Uenlly also witnesses of this 

 mi_<;hty phenomenon. But this fact, on the other hand, takes from 

 us every hojie of still nndin<; traces of human existence on places 

 over which the ancient glaciers have passed. Examples showing 

 this in later limes are by no means wanting in our countr}'. At 

 all events, the last gap between geological and historical time is 

 now tilled uj) by the discovery at Aurignac. — Header. 



ETHNOLOGICAJi SUMMARY. 



Importance of Philology to Ethnology. — The President -.f the 

 Geographical Section of the British Assoeiation, in his address, in 

 bSGtj, alluded to a tendency with many ethnologists in their 

 intiuiries to disparage the force of the evidence allbrded l)y lan- 

 guage, as a key to the histor}^ and the relationship of the different 

 sections of mankin«l to each other. Yet it was impossible to gain- 

 say the absolute co-relation that exists between certain organic 

 forms of speech and some of the great typical divisions of man. 

 Language, in liis o])iniou, constitutes one of the most j't-i'mancnt 

 and indelible tests of race; and no system of ethnology could dis- 

 pense with the aid of philology. The early utterances of maa 

 have become stamped with a certain degree of immortality. The 

 Celtic and the Hindoo, the early Persian, the Hellenic and Latin 

 races betray the community of their origin in the dialectic affini- 

 ties of the tongues they speak. On the bank of the Tigris and the 

 Euphrates, the Arab cmplo3-s a language which is the lineal de- 

 scendant, with few fundamental changes, of that spoken by his 

 forefathers in the days of the Hebrew patriarchs ; whilst in the 

 Semitic names scattered along the shores of the Mediterranean 

 Sea and eastern coast of Africa, we have unerring indications of 

 the progress and settlements of early Semitic tribes. However 

 plastic and evanescent, under certain local conditions, character- 

 istic forms of speech may be, they still att'ord, in the history of 

 man, the key to many of the vicissitudes that have marked his 

 migrations, his conquests, his religion, his social polity, the meas- 

 ure ot many of the attributes, by which, as an individual or a r.ace, 

 he is distinguished from his fellow-men. 



