vi.] ADDRESS. 183 



period man appears to have been ignorant not only of 

 metals, but of pottery. The stone implements are much 

 ruder, and are simply chipped into form, being never 

 ground or polished. We have no evidence of the exist- x 

 ence of any domestic animals, and man probably lived 

 mainly on the produce of the chase, contending for the 

 possession of Europe with animals which now exist only 

 in distant regions, or have become entirely extinct. So 

 unexpected were these facts, so improbable did they ap- 

 pear, that geologists accepted them only after reiterated 

 and incontrovertible proofs. The researches of MM. 

 Tournal and Christol in the caves of the south of France, 

 now just half .a century ago the still more complete 

 investigations of Dr. Schmerling in those of Belgium, 

 during the years 1833-34 scarcely raised even a doubt 

 upon the subject. Those of Mr. McEnery in Kent's 

 Cavern attracted little attention; subsequent observa- 

 tions made there by Mr. Vivian were refused publi- 

 cation, on account of the inherent improbability of the 

 conclusions to which they pointed. The discoveries 

 of M. Boucher de Perthes were neglected for a quarter 

 of a century, and it is not too much to say that if geo- 

 logists are open to blame at all for their behaviour 

 with reference to this question, it would certainly be 

 rather for their incredulity for their blind adher- 

 ence to traditional chronology than for too ready an 

 acceptance of new views. Yet they may well be 

 pardoned for long hesitation before they could bring 

 themselves to believe that man really inhabited Europe 

 at a time when not only the urus and the bison and the 

 reindeer occupied the whole of Europe as far south as 

 the Alps, but when the cave lion, the cave bear, the 



