VI, 



The Alleged Miocene Man in Burma. 



''PHE November number of Natural Science and of the Geological 

 1 Magazine contained notices of Dr. Noetling's paper " On the 

 Occurrence of Chipped (?) Fhnts in the Upper Miocene of Burma," in 

 the course of which the reviewer accepts as an estabhshed fact that 

 worked flints have been found by an experienced geological surveyor in 

 a stratum of either Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene age — a statement 

 which appears to have found its way without qualification into other 

 periodicals, and even text-books. Dr. Noetling was obliging enough 

 to show me over the locality where these flint fragments were found, 

 and as the question of the existence of man in these Miocene beds is 

 too important to be settled by the ex cathedra statement of even so 

 eminent an authority as Professor Rupert Jones, I would offer the 

 following remarks, in the hope that they may inspire that due amount 

 of scientific caution which is desirable where a conclusion so revolu- 

 tionary is still incompletely established. 



There are two distinct issues which must both be decided 

 affirmatively before we can say that the existence of man in Miocene 

 times in the Irawadi valley has been proved. First, are the flakes of 

 Miocene age ? secondly, are they of human origin ? The second I do 

 not propose to discuss ; but with regard to the first, the statement that 

 a flake was found partially embedded in the rock requires, in the 

 circumstances of the present case, an explanation. The site is on a 

 spur running out into one of the valleys which have been cut back 

 into the plateau ; the crest of this spur falls somewhat rapidly and 

 then rises slightly to the outcrop of the ferruginous conglomerate, 

 whose exposure on the crest of the spur is, to the best of my recollec- 

 tion, about 50 ft. long by 8 to 10 wide. No vestige of soil or sand is 

 here, all having been removed by rain and wind, but there is a thin 

 coating of ferruginous gravel overlaying the solid rock, and it was on 

 this surface, as pointed out to me by Dr. Noetling, that the flakes 

 were found. Ordinarily, there would be no hesitation in ascribing 

 anything found in this layer of loose material to the underlying rock ; 

 but it is not the same as finding a flake, or fossil, embedded in a bare 

 vertical exposure below the level to which the rock had been loosened 

 by weathering. It must be remembered that the degree of proof 



