6 



rash cntliusiiist if not indeed a madman. For many years he 

 made few converts. At length some of the less sce})tic-al men 

 in the scientific workl hegan to investigate the matter for them, 

 selves. In their wake followed many others, until at length the 

 verdict, an almost unanimous one, was given. The implements, 

 rude thougli they seemed, were recognised as of human origin : 

 no process in nature could account for them. Rough and ill 

 shapen they were, hut nevertheless unmistakahle were the 

 indications of the skill of man. 



The co-existence of the makers of these implements 

 with extinct mammals, and the antiquity of the beds 

 in which the implements were found, still i-emainetl 

 however to some extent open questions. To these (piestions — 

 questions of the very deepest interest to the theological, 

 scientific and thinking world generally — geological experts, 

 notably. Sir Charles Lyell, now turned their attention. In his 

 work on the " Antiquity of Man," Sir Charles Lyell in a clear, 

 comprehensive and impartial style lays before his readers the 

 mass of evidence he has to adduce on this subject. His 

 conclusions, supported as they are by the researches of experts 

 of all nationalities, are to any unbiassed mind convinchig 

 Man's co-existence in Europe with species of large pachyder- 

 matous mammals long since extinct, and at a tin^e when the 

 climate in what are now tem})erate latitudes was as severe as 

 in Northern Ilussia to-day, has gradually come to be regarded 

 as a scientific fact. Man's appearance upon the earth would 

 seem to have occurred, not as was generally supposed a few odd 

 thousand years ago, but at a far more remote period amongst 

 those {L'ons of time, the vastness of which the science of geology 

 has revealed. Prior to the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes 

 it is only fair to say that one or two other discoverers had called 

 attention to similar stone imi)lements, l)ut without avail. M. 

 de Perthes was the first to secure public attention and scientific 



