I 



Prehistoric and Savage Man 173 



But to what past epoch can man's existence be now- 

 shown to have extended ? As to this there are still wide 

 differences of opinion amongst experts. The evidences of the 

 past history of this planet are the various fossils which are 

 enclosed in the several strata, the relative ages of which are 

 shown by their relative positions — the uppermost being the 

 most recent. These epochs, I may perhaps be permitted to 

 remind you, are reckoned as three in number, the primary or 

 most ancient, the secondary or intermediate, and the tertiary 

 or most recent. It is the last of these only with which we 

 can have any concern. The tertiary epoch is that during 

 which, the various strata have been deposited which lie above 

 the chalk, and these strata are subdivided into three sets, 

 called respectively eocene, miocene, and j[)leiocene, because the 

 first saw, as it were, the dawn, and the third the fulness, of 

 various forms of animal life closely resembling those which 

 still survive. The pleiocene period really continues now, but 

 for convenience-sake the most recent portion of it is distin- 

 guished as post-tertiary (or pleistocene and recent), including 

 the deposits of rivers and those found in caverns. 



To which of these deposits then can we trace evidences 

 of man's existence? No one, so far as I know, has yet 

 affirmed that there is any evidence anterior to certain re- 

 mains which have been thought to be of the Miocene period. 

 These remains consist of some splinters of flint, and a notched 

 fragment of a rib, found by the Abbe Bourgeois at Thenay, in 

 France. These data, however, are not generally regarded as 

 satisfactory or sufficient, and 1 believe the great majority of 

 experts decline as yet to admit the existence of Miocene 

 man. Man, zoologically speaking, is one of the great groups 

 of creatures which suckle their young, and are therefore called 

 mammals. Now the mammals which existed on the earth, 

 so far as we know, in Miocene times have, although very 

 rich in number, entirely passed away, and it is not deemed 



