APPENDIX. 403 



area of land in the Northern Hemisphere was greater than at present. 

 This represents the Late Pleistocene of Dawkins. It was terminated 

 by a great and very general subsidence, accompanied by the dis- 

 appearance of Paleocosmic man and some large mammalia, and which 

 may be identical with the historical deluge. 



(h) Recent, when the continents attained their present levels, ex- 

 isting races of men colonized Europe, and living species of mammals. 

 This includes both the Pre-historic and Historic periods. 



On geological grounds the above should clearly be our 

 arrangement, though of course there need be no objection 

 to such other subdivisions as historians and antiquarians 

 may find desirable for their purposes. On this classifica- 

 tion the earliest certain indications of the presence of man in 

 Europe, Asia, or America, so far as yet known, belong to the 

 Modern period alone. That man may have existed pre- 

 viously no one need deny, but no man can positively affirm 

 on any ground of actual fact. I do not reckon here the 

 two flint flakes of Crayford and Erith already mentioned, 

 because even if they are of human workmanship, the 

 actual age of the bed in which they occur, as to its being 

 glacial or post-glacial, is not beyond doubt. Flint flakes 

 or even flint chips may be safely referred to man when 

 they are found with human remains, but when found nlone 

 they are by no means certain evidence. The clays of the 

 Thames valley have been held by some good geologists to 

 be pre-glacial, but by others to be much later, and the 

 question is still under discussion. Dawkins thinks they 

 may be " Mid Pleistocene," equivalent to " Later Pleis- 

 tocene " of the second table above, and that they are the 

 oldest traces of man certainly known ; but in the mean- 

 time they should evidently be put to what has been called 

 " the suspense account." 



Inasmuch, however, as the human remains of the post- 

 glacial epoch are those of fully developed men of high 

 type, it may be said, and has often been said, that man in 

 some lower stage of development must have existed at a 



