Falconer'' s PalcEontological Memoirs 237 



which has since been so ably carried out under tiie superinten- 

 dence of Mr Pengelley, and the results of which we have reason 

 to hope will very shortly be laid before the world. A second 

 great impulse in the same direction was, also about the same time 

 given by the making known of M. Boucher des Perthes' important 

 discoveries in the gravel beds of the Somme Valley; and here, again, 

 we find that the general recognition of the extreme interest of these 

 discoveries, which had before been almost derided in France, was, 

 in the first instance due, or at any rate was materially hastened by 

 Dr Falconer, who on his journey to Italy and Sicily, in October 

 1858, paid a visit to Abbeville, and was there so much struck with 

 what he saw in M. des Perthes' collection, and at once so impressed 

 with its value, that he immediately wrote to Mr Prestwich 

 strongly recommending him to proceed to Abbeville. This advice 

 was followed, and the results of Mr Prestwich's visit, who was 

 speedily followed by a host of others, are too well known to require 

 mention here. Suffice it to say, that from that time the fame of 

 M. Boucher des Perthes, as one of those who have most contribu- 

 ted towards the history of priscan man in Western Europe, has been 

 placed on an imperishable basis. Nor should it be forgotten that 

 the discoveries made by Dr Falconer of and in the Grotta de 

 Maccagnone, in the following winter, served in no slight degree to 

 add to the impulse which M. des Perthes' discoveries, and those 

 which had been made in the Caverns of Gower and at Brixham, 

 may be said to have first given to Antrological and prehistonic 

 research. 



With this subject, therefore, above all others, the name of 

 Falconer, as one of the earliest and most zealous pioneers, will ever 

 be inseparably connected. Devoted to it all his life, he may even 

 be said to have perished in its cause. It was his zeal in this inquiry, 

 more especially as connected with the fossil Cave Fauna of the 

 Mediterranean, that induced him to undertake a journey to 

 Gibraltar in the autumn of 1864, to visit on the spot the 

 caverns and fissures which had been recently opened on the 

 Windmill Hill, and ably and indefatigably explored by Captain 

 Brome, to whom Palaeontology is so deeply indebted. The 

 fatigue incident to a hurried journey through Spain and France 

 there is too much reason to fear may have predisposed him to 

 yield to the acute attack to which he fell a victim shortly after 

 his return, and thus deprived science of one of its brightest orna- 

 ments and most zealous votaries, and his friends of one of the 

 most genial, honest, and warm-hearted men that ever existed. 



