END OF THE PALANTHROPIC AGE $7 



northern hemisphere, and ascend in some districts to 

 high levels. An interesting illustration has recently 

 been given by Dr. Nuesch and M. Boule, in the 

 deposits under a rock-shelter at Schweizersbild, near 

 Schaffhausen. 1 These show an overlying deposit 

 with * neolithic ' implements and bones of recent 

 animals, a bed of rubble and loam destitute of human 

 remains, and below this a bed containing bone imple- 

 ments, worked flints, and traces of cookery of the 

 palanthropic period. The whole rests on a bed of 

 rolled pebbles, supposed to be the upper part of the 

 glacial deposits. This shows the interval between 

 the palanthropic and neanthropic periods, and also 

 the post-glacial date of man in Switzerland, and it 

 accords with a great many other instances. 



Were these changes sudden or gradual? Ex- 

 perience has no answer, for no similar events have 

 occurred in historic times, and though there are 

 records in the geological history of many mutations 

 in the elevation of the land, we have no information 

 as to their rate of progress, and we know little of their 

 causes. The changes of this kind known to us in 

 modern times are merely local, not general, and in 

 regard to their rate are of two kinds. Some are 

 abrupt and accompanied with earthquake shocks. 

 These are very local, and usually occur in regions of 

 volcanic activity. Others are so slow and gradual 

 as to be scarcely perceptible, and are often of wider 



1 Nouvelles archives des Missions t &c. voL iii. Noticed in 



Natural Science, 1893. 



