EARLY TRACES OF MAN. 795 



and hesitation in the path of progress, has its mind made up to contest 

 his existence in the Orient. What the leaders of this vSchool maintain 

 is this : In the East, say they, civihzation, and consequently historic 

 records, date back to a very remote time. Is it not, then, possible that 

 geological time still persisted in Europe, and especially in western 

 Europe, while in Egypt the historic dynasties were being founded ? 



To put forth such a proposition as this, one must be ignorant of the 

 data of geology. The remarkable collections exhibited at the Anthro- 

 pological Exposition have shown that man was contemporary not only 

 with the reindeer, the saiga, the chamois, and the marmot on our 

 plains ; not only with the mammoth, and the Rhinoceros tichorhinics 

 — that is, with the fauna of the glacial period — but also with the great 

 hippopotamus, the Elephas primigenius, and the rhinoceros of Merk. 

 All geologists are agreed that the duration of the period in which we 

 live is as nothing compared with that of the Quaternary period. It is 

 as a day compared to ages, as a drop of water in a stream. All paleon- 

 tologists understand what a length of time is requisite for the rise and 

 decline of animal species — species which, while they have been upon 

 the earth, have been lavishly distributed over an enormous area. 



But we have no need of the general data of geology and paleontol- 

 ogy in order to meet the objection. The Exposition of the Anthropo- 

 logical Sciences furnished materials which reduce it to a nullity. There 

 were exhibited perfectly characterized quaternary instruments of silex 

 from the East — from the most ancient seats of civilization, Egypt and 

 Syria. In those countries then, no less than in France and England, 

 quaternary man preceded all the historic civilizations. 



The earliest Quaternary epoch, the preglacial, is characterized, so 

 far as man's works are concerned, by a stone implement of peculiar 

 form. It is dressed on its two sides, usually rather roughly chipped ; 

 it is rounded at the base, pointed at the top, and its edges are pretty 

 sharp. In general form it is more or less almond-shaped. This imple- 

 ment, in past times called by workmen in quarries "langue de chat" 

 (cat's tongue), is now called " hache de St. Acheul," or " hache acheuli- 

 enne " (hatchet of St. Acheul), terms derived from the locality in which 

 it has been oftenest found. They have been found in abundance in the 

 quaternary alluviums of France, England, and Spain. Nay, within a 

 few years they have been found in the valley of the Delaware near 

 Trenton, New Jersey, by Dr. Charles C. Abbott. The figures which he 

 has published, and his descriptions, tally exactly with the St. Acheul 

 hatchets of France and England. 



Nor is it in the New World only that the existence of man in the 

 earliest portion of the Quaternary period has been proved ; the same 

 thing is true of the Old World. M. Place, the explorer of Assyria, has 

 brought to light a St. Acheul hatchet of silex which he found under the 

 ruins of the palace of Khorsabad. At the exposition, the Abbe Richard 

 showed a St. Acheul hatchet, also of silex, from the lake of Tiberias. 



