•CHAPTEE XII. 



CLOSE OF THE POST-PLIOCENE, AND ADVENT OF MAN. 



In closing these sketches it may seem unsatisfactory 

 not to link the geological ages with the moderu 

 period in which we live; yet, perhaps, nothing is 

 more complicated or encompassed with greater diffi- 

 culties or uncertainties. The geologist, emerging 

 from the study of the older monuments of the earth's 

 history, and working with the methods of physical 

 science, here m^eets face to face the archaeologist and 

 historian, who have been tracing back in the opposite 

 direction, and with very different appliances, the 

 stream of human history and tradition. In such 

 circumstances conflicts may occur, or at least the two 

 paths of inquiry may refuse to connect themselves 

 without concessions unpleasant to the pursuers of one 

 or both. Further, it is just at this meeting-place that 

 the dim candle of traditional lore is almost burnt out 

 in the hand of the antiquary, and that the geologist 

 finds his monumental evidence becoming more scanty 

 and less distinct. We cannot hope as yet to dispel all 

 the shadows that haunt this obscure domain, but can 

 at least point out some of the paths which traverse it. 

 In attempting this, we may first classify the time 

 involved as follows : — (1) The earlier Post-pliocene 



