ii.] THE PEBBLES IN THE STEEET. 69 



the mammoth and rhinoceros, the bison, the lion, 

 and many another mighty beast reoccnpied our low- 

 lands, at a time when the hippopotamus, at least in 

 summer, ranged freely from Africa and Spain across 

 what was then dry land between France and England, 

 and fed by the side of animals which have long since 

 retreated to Norway and to Canada. I should have 

 liked to tell the archaeologist of the human beings 

 probably from their weapons and their habits of the 

 same race as the present Laplanders, who passed 

 northward as the ice went back, following the wild 

 reindeer herds from the South of France into our 

 islands, which were no islands then, to be in their turn 

 driven northward by stronger races from the east and 

 south. But space presses, and I fear that I have 

 written too much already. 



At least, I have turned over for you a few grand 

 and strange pages in the book of nature, and taught 

 you, I hope, a key by which to decipher their hiero- 

 glyphics. At least, I have, I trust, taught you to 

 look, as I do, with something of interest, even of awe, 

 upon the pebbles in the street. 



