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IJatoolttljtc ittau at CvcstoclL 



By the Rev. J. Magens Mello, M.A., F.G.S., etc. 



j OME forty years or so ago, the possibility of man having 

 been a contemporary of the mammalian fauna of the 

 Pleistocene period was, if not openly derided, yet 

 received with great scepticism, even in the scientific world. The 

 discoveries made in the earlier part of the century in the caves of 

 Gailenreuth, Oreston, Kirkdale, Paviland, Kent's-hole and Engis ; 

 the startling announcement made by Boucher de Perthes of the 

 presence of flint implements in the ancient gravels of the Somme, 

 had at first but little convincing power over long-established preju- 

 dice ; but as discovery succeeded discovery, and first one locality, 

 then another yielded up its evidence, the combined testimony 

 became at last so strong that it was impossible for any but the 

 most obstinately opinionated to refuse their belief, and at length 

 the existence of Pleistocene man has become an universally 

 acknowledged fact. 



The presence of human remains, if not of his bones, yet of 

 intelligently contrived implements in British and foreign caves in 

 such intimate association with the teeth and bones of the Mam- 

 moth, woolly Rhinoceros, Cave Bear, Hyaena, Reindeer, and 

 other animals, under circumstances precluding the possibility of 

 subsequent admixture, allowed of no other explanation than that 

 of contemporanity. 



In England the long and carefully-conducted exploration of 

 Kent's hole, that of Wokey hole, and other caverns, showed that 

 in the Pleistocene age a race, if not races of man, was in exist- 

 ence, savage indeed, but yet not without some appliances of art, 



