CHAP. VL] AS TO MAN IN EARLY PLEISTOCENE STRATA. 133 



this variety of fig-tree and the Judas-tree formed part of 

 the forests, are represented by the remains found at St. 

 Prest, near Chartres, 1 proving that the banks of the Eure 

 were haunted by the horse, the southern elephant (E. 

 meridionalis) , the Etruskan rhinoceros (R. etruscus), a 

 large extinct deer (Cervus carnutorum), and the large 

 extinct beaver (Trogoniherium). All these are found, 

 as we have already seen, in the Forest-bed of Norfolk. 



Evidence of Man in Early Pleistocene Strata doubtful, 



In 1863 certain cut bones, 2 discovered in the deposit 

 of St. Prest above mentioned, were considered by M. J. 

 Desnoyers to be the work of man, and to imply his 

 presence during the time of the deposit of the fluviatile 

 strata in which they were buried. Some of these marks 

 have been shown experimentally by Sir Charles Lyell 

 to be capable of production by the gnawing of rodents, 

 while others appear to Sir John Lubbock " to be probably 

 of human origin/' Their artificial character is accepted 

 by most of the French archaeologists, and supported by 

 the discovery of flints worked by the band of man, by 

 the Abbe Bourgeois. Unfortunately, however, there is 

 some doubt as to the precise stratum in which these 

 were found. On the whole, it is more prudent to follow 

 Sir John Lubbock in putting this evidence to a " suspense 

 account," rather than to take it to show that man was 

 living in the early Pleistocene age. We will therefore 



1 Lartet, La Seine, par M. Belgrand, ii. p. 206. Gervais, Animaux 

 Vertebras Vivants et Fossiles, 4to, p. 80. 



2 Comptes Rendus, 8th June 1863. tyell, Antiquity, 4tli edit. 233 

 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, 2d edit. 410. Haiay, Paleontologie Humaine 

 p. 89 et seq. 



