PREADAMITE MAN. 125 



planatory of the result as actually found. Those persons who 

 rely much on the negative testimony of the paucity of human 

 bones, compared with the abundant presence of instruments 

 the assumed product of human handicraft, may ponder on the 

 fact presently to be stated with advantage. 



The great Haarlem Lake, drained within the last few 

 years and reclaimed to dry land, did not reveal one trace of 

 human bones, though sea-fights had taken place upon its wa- 

 ters during the contests between the Dutch and the Spanish ; 

 and moreover, in times before the Zuyder Zee broke over it 

 and it became a lake, its bed comprehended the site of at least 

 two burying-fields. It may readily be assumed that mankind 

 in all ages, under all states of society and grades of civilisa- 

 tion, would have mostly disposed of the remains of the dead 

 with some reference to sepulture, involving conditions of 

 early decay; to which, amongst other reasons, the paucity 

 of human remains may be attributable. Again, it seems rea- 

 sonable to assume that, granting the existence of man in pre- 

 historic times, the number of mankind would be still small in 

 comparison with the animals associated. Be this as it may, no 

 amount of hypothetical assumption can be held sufficient to 

 controvert one positive fact. If the point be granted that 

 remains of man or of man's handiwork have been found in 

 geological formations referable to prehistoric times, then all 

 hypothetical objections, showing why such evidences should 

 not be found, sink into unimportance. 



The term ' prehistoric,' which is here frequently em- 

 ployed, is designedly loose and elastic. Any term anterior to 

 the first accepted records of history, whether by hundreds or 

 thousands, tens of thousands, or, in short, any possible num- 

 ber of years, may be called prehistorical. The human records 

 already adverted to remnants from the Brixham caves, the 

 Liege caverns, and the valley of the Somme give the impres- 

 sion of having belonged to a period of time not only prehis- 

 torical, but that by some indefinitely long period a time 



