No. 6.] DAWKINS — THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 371 



It will naturally be asked, to what race can the River-drift 

 man be referred ? The question, in my opinion, cannot be 

 answered in the present stage of the inquiry, because the few 

 fragments of human bones discovered along with the implements 

 are too imperfect to afford a clue. Nor can we measure the 

 interval in terms of years which separates the River-drift man 

 from the present day, either by assuming that the glacial period 

 was due to astronomical causes, and then proceeding to calculate 

 the time necessary for them to produce their result, or by an 

 appeal to the erosion of valleys or the retrocession of waterfalls. 

 The interval must, however, have been very great to allow of the 

 changes in geography and climate, and the distribution of animals 

 which has taken place — the succession of races, and the develop- 

 ment of civilisation before history began. Standing before the 

 rock-hewn tombs of the kings of Luxor, we may realise the 

 impossibility of fixing the time when the River-drift hunter lived 

 on the site of ancient Thebes, or of measuring the lapse of time 

 between his days and the splendor of the civilisation of Egypt. 



In this inquiry, which is all too long, I fear, for my audience 

 and all too short, I know, for my subject, I have purposely 

 omitted all reference to the successor of the River-drift man in 

 Europe — the Cave man, who was in a higher stage of the hunter 

 civilisation. In the course of my remarks you will have seen 

 that the story told by the rudely chipped implements found at 

 our very doors in this place, forms a part of the wider story of 

 the first appearance of man, and of his distribution on the earth 

 — a story which is to my mind not unfitting as an introduction 

 to the work of the Anthropological Section of this meeting of 

 the British Association. 



