222 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 



as regards the history of man, he states that 

 while his antiquity " cannot be less than ten 

 thousand, it need not be more than fifteen 

 thousand years. Eight thousand years of pre- 

 historic time is ample to account for all known 

 facts relating to his development " (p. 496). No 

 doubt many will laugh at this moderate estimate, 

 but it has strong supporters. The Abbe Breuil, 

 for example, admittedly one of the foremost pre- 

 historic archaeologists of the day, is in accord with 

 Driver, who thinks that the time of man's sojourn 

 on earth cannot be less than 20,000 years. Prest- 

 wich even limited the entire glacial period and 

 thus, according to our present knowledge, still 

 more limited the antiquity of man to 25,000 

 years. 



Whilst these extraordinary differences exist 

 between the estimates of scientific men, those 

 who (like the present writer) are not, from their 

 own investigation, competent to express any 

 opinion, may well hold their judgments in sus- 

 pense and await the day when some kind of know- 

 ledge as to what caused the Glacial Period may 

 begin to throw light upon the length of its 

 duration. 



That such knowledge may be arrived at we 

 may look upon as more than possible ; that it 

 has been striven after long and oft is obvious 

 from the books referred to in this article ; that 

 it has in no way yet been reached is not less 

 obvious from the extraordinary discrepancies to 

 which attention has been called. 



