130 FOSSIL MEN. 



of civilization or of human agency. There must also 

 have been quarries and excavations of great magni- 

 tude, out of which the demand for flints among this 

 primitive population was supplied. It is much to be 

 desired, in the interest alike of scientific a.nd biblical 

 archaeology, that thorough explorations should be 

 made of those lands which are historically the cradle of 

 our species, to ascertain what traces remain of the pre- 

 historic people who must have swarmed on the table- 

 lands and river valleys of Asia, before they were swept 

 away by the diluvial catastrophe which is recorded 

 alike in the pages of Moses and the clay tablets of 

 Assyria, and the dread memory of which survives in 

 the traditions of nearly every family of mankind. It 

 is well known that all over Asia and Northern Africa 

 implements and weapons of chipped flint were used 

 in historic times along with those of metal ; but it is 

 doubtful if we know anything of the antediluvian 

 agricultural populations. American analogies would 

 lead us to suppose that their only remaining traces 

 might be the roughly-chipped flints which they 

 probably used in cultivating the soil. Should these 

 be found, however, they would be assumed by most 

 archaeologists to be the implements of a rude and 

 savage race, scarcely elevated above the brutes. 



Chipped-stone scrapers, knives, and borers exist 

 among the American tribes, of similar patterns to 

 those of pre-historic Europe; but we must now 

 pass on to the polished stone implements made of 

 quartzite, diorite, and other hard rocks. Those in 



