52 Primitive Man. 



by the melting of the ice mass, the deposit, in all coun- 

 tries, of boulders evidently brought from regions far remote 

 northerly from the localities where deposited, and of a min- 

 eralogical character wholly different, in many instances, 

 from that of the soil on which they rest, are matters of 

 ordinary information. The important result, in the history 

 of primitive man of the ice age, in Europe certainly, w%as 

 the migration from the vicinity of our present arctic 

 climate into the central and southern-central portions of the 

 continent, of the race known as the cave-men, forced south- 

 erly by the exigencies of extreme cold, and displacing or 

 exterminating the j)rior people of the river-drift, who have 

 left with us such abundant proofs of their occupation in 

 the countless specimens of flints, knives, axes, hammers 

 and weapons with which, and by which, their existence and 

 name are identified. The cave man was contemporaneous 

 with the entire glacial era, and with the geological period 

 immediately subsequent, classed by scientists as the Diluv- 

 ian OT-^Drift. This brings us once more to the formation in 

 which M. de Perthes' discoveries Avere first made, and by 

 him made available for further scientific inquiry. 



The diluvian deposit was largely a direct consequence of 

 the cessation of the glacial epoch in Europe, caused by the 

 gradual increase in temperature and the resultant melting 

 of the vast ice formations, and the gradual withdrawal of 

 the southerly line of glacial action to the remote north 

 once more, except in lofty and therefore cold altitudes like 

 those of the Alps, where it is still in operation. The con- 

 sequence of this general melting down of the ice-deposits 

 Avas the creation of extensive river-floods, which, bearing 

 along the great mass of foreign bodies conveyed southwardly 

 by the glaciers, formed what is known specifically as the 

 diluvium of the valleys consisting of debris from the 

 mountains, gravels, pebbles, and sediment of mud and sand 

 frequently impregnated with oxide of iron (the ferruginous 

 layers of which we have spoken), and with calcareous or 

 chalky material. The close of tlie diluvian period brings 

 us to the alluvial deposits and recent period, within which 

 no terrestrial changes of soil or climate have been suflicieut 

 materially to affect the evolution of tlie race. 



I return now to the discoveries of jVI. de Perthes. With 

 great confidence in regard to the bearing of these u])on tlm 

 future of primitive ethnology and archaeology, he submitted 



