BY THE PRESIDENT. 159 



under conditions wliicli seemed to afford conclusive proof of an 

 almost inconceivable antiquity. They were, he said, the earliest 

 traces of the handiwork of intelligent beings which this country 

 had so far afforded." 



This interesting discovery tempts me to speak of that popular 

 subject, the antiquity of man. But I must refrain, partly from 

 want of time, but more from want of ability for the task, and 

 because I hope, and have reason to expect, that we shall have a 

 paper from the greatest living authority on this subject — Mr. John 

 Evans. But I should like to record my opinion that the antiquity 

 of man is very much underrated, not only by those who are not 

 geologists, but even by geologists themselves. Besides, I have 

 never heard any one bold enough to calculate geological time in 

 years. We speak of ages and cycles and aeons ; but I want 

 to see geological time reduced to our years, and then I can form 

 a better idea of its duration. Mr. Evans even will not give a 

 date. He says in the concluding words of his last address to 

 us : " If you are mentally able to conceive the amount of 

 time which would be necessary for producing such effects [some 

 geological changes], I think you will agree with me that the 

 antiquity of man is something which requires strong powers of 

 our imagination to realise " (' Transactions,' Vol. I, p. 200). 



I stated in my addi'ess last year that it was my opinion that in 

 every solar year of about twenty-five millions of years our earth 

 has a glacial period. If so, if we can find out how many glacial 

 periods have elapsed since the earliest of the remains of man have 

 been discovered, we have only to multiply the number of glacial 

 periods by twenty-five millions, and it will give us the antiquity of 

 man in years. I think it probable that man has been on this 

 earth at least five or six solar years, say about 150 millions 

 of years. I read in the October number of the * Nineteenth 

 Century' that "about two years ago Mr. S. J. B. SkertchJy dis- 

 covered in East Anglia oval fiint implements of the Palaeolithic 

 type in the brick-earth." The brick-earth may be traced in places 

 beneath the chalky boulder-clay. This boi;lder-clay is supposed to 

 have been formed in the early part of the Ice Age, when the cold 

 was at its maximum of severity. In the recent Paris Exhibition 

 might be seen a collection of flints in a case on the wall. They 

 were taken from beds supposed to belong to the early part of that 

 stage of the earth's history which is termed the Miocene Period. 

 In some parts of Switzerland beds of lignite or brown coal may be 

 seen to rest upon deposits of glacial origin ; while they are in turn 

 covered by deposits of a like nature. Both the lower and the 



