IV METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY 249 



I assume Man to have arisen in the manner 

 which I have discussed elsewhere, and probably, 

 though by no means necessarily, in one locality. 

 Whether he arose singly, or a number of examples 

 appeared contemporaneously, is also an open 

 question for the believer in the production of 

 species by the gradual modification of pre-existing 

 ones. At what epoch of the world's history this 

 took place, again, we have no evidence whatever. 

 It may have been in the older tertiary, or earlier ; 

 but what is most important to remember is, that 

 the discoveries of late years have proved that man 

 inhabited Western Europe, at any rate, before the 

 occurrence of those great physical changes which 

 have given Europe its present aspect. And as 

 the same evidence shows that man was the con- 

 temporary of animals which are now extinct, it 

 is not too much to assume that his existence 

 dates back at least as far as that of our present 

 Fauna and Flora, or before the epoch of the 

 drift. 



But if this be true, it is somewhat startling to 

 reflect upon the prodigious changes which have 

 taken place in the physical geography of this 

 planet since man has been an occupant of it. 



During that period the greater part of the 

 British islands, of Central Europe, of Northern 

 Asia, have been submerged beneath the sea and 

 raised up again. So has the great desert of 

 Sahara, which occupies the major part of Northern 



