94 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



CHAPTER VII 



THE EARLY NEANTHROPIC AGE 



THERE has been much confusion among anthro- 

 pologists respecting the distinction of this from the 

 preceding age. The Cro-magnon race has been 

 classed as neanthropic, and has been confounded 

 with a very dissimilar people which succeeded it after 

 an interval of some duration. The gap between the 

 disappearance of the earlier race and the arrival of 

 the newer has thus been overlooked, and no account 

 has been taken of the great intervening faunal and 

 geographical changes. This has arisen from neglect- 

 ing or being unable to appreciate the geological part 

 of the evidence ; and the somewhat lamentable result 

 has been that it is difficult for the ordinary reader to 

 arrive at any certainty, in the midst of conflicting 

 statements all based on imperfect data. In these 

 circumstances it will be well to begin this chapter with 

 some examples of the relations of these different 

 races. 



At Crenelle, near Paris, on the river Seine, there is 

 a succession of old inundation beds of that river, ex- 



