1865.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 337 



of climate not proved, and probably careful weighing of evidence 

 may justify our disbelief, still, if the valleys in Picardy have been 

 excavated since the deposit of the gravel of St. Acheul (i), and 

 the whole face of the country has been altered about the caverns 

 of Torquay since they received remains of animals and traces of 

 man (j) — how can we admit these facts and yet refuse the time 

 required for their accomplishment ? First, let us be sure of the 

 facts, and especially of that main fact upon which all the argu- 

 ment involving immensity of time really turns, viz., the contem- 

 poraneous existence of man with the mammoth of the plains and 

 the bear of the caverns. The remains of men are certainly buried 

 with those of extinct quadrupeds ; but did they live in the same 

 days, or do we see relics of different periods gathered into one 

 locality by natural processes of a later date, or confused by the 

 operations of men ? 



Before replying finally to these questions, further researches 

 of an exact kind are desirable, and the Association has given its 

 aid towards them, both in respect to the old cavern of Kent's 

 Hole, and the newly -opened fissure of Gibraltar, from which we 

 expect great results, though the best of our laborers has ceased 

 from his honorable toil. (Ar) When these and many other re- 

 searches are completed, some future Lyell, if not our own great 

 geologist, may add some fresh chapters to the " Antiquity of 

 Man." 



In judging of this antiquity, in counting the centuries which 

 may have elapsed since smoothed flints fitted with handles of wood 

 were used as chisels and axes by the earliest people of Scandinavia 

 or Helvetia, and flakes of flint were employed to cleanse the skins 

 of the reindeer in the caves of the Dordogne, or stronger tools 

 broke up the ice in the valley of the Somme, we must be careful 

 not to take what is the mark of low civilization for the indication 

 of very remote time. In every country, among every race of men, 

 such rude weapons and tools are used now, or were used formerly. 

 On the banks of the Ohio, no less than on the English hills, 

 mounds of earth, rude pottery, and stone weapons occur in abun- 



(i) Prestwich, Transactions of the Royal Society, 1860, and Proc. of 

 Roy. Inst., Feb., 1864. 



(j) Pengelly, reports of the British Association, 1864. 



(k) The late Dr. Hugh Falconer, whose knowledge of the fossil ani- 

 mals of caves was remarkably exact, took a great share in these exami- 

 nations. 



Vol. II. w No. 5. 



