Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1901), No. % 17 



from any palaeolithic or later implements, and distinctly a 

 less perfect, less variable, and so much the earlier 

 production of the hand of man. 



I submit that, so far as my long series of specimens, 

 and much more the collections of Mr. Harrison and 

 others, show, and as any judgment of my own extends, 

 the Plateau Implements are rightly so called, and, as 

 such, manifest appropriate and absolute peculiarities of 

 material, of form, and of special adaptation, of manu- 

 facturing design, skill and habit, and of remotest age, — .so 

 far as we have yet been able to observe. 



And, finally, I declare my own unhesitating con- 

 currence with those perhaps less limited, less embarrassed, 

 but more skilful, and more learned observers who believe 

 that, in his discovery and publication of his eolithic 

 remains, Mr. Harrison has unveiled the fossil indications 

 of the mind, purpose, and character of a race of men of 

 an age long preceding that of the palaeolithic man, and 

 has established an antecedent geological era for the habi- 

 tation in this country of the human race. 



It is truly remarkable to think of Man even then 

 endowed with intellect, invention, skill, purposes and 

 perseverance ; the very same powers and principles 

 which still fundamentally characterise the race — that same 

 race which, since blessed with the great developments and 

 inheritances of literature and religion, has grown to be 

 what it now is ; and that man has so far steadily framed 

 his course onwards towards what he is and shall yet be in 

 fuller consciousness of Him who hath made us all from 

 the beginning. 



