ON PEIMITIVE MAN : I. HIS TIMES AND HIS COMPANIONS, 235 



passed away ; many a snow-capped summit miglit have been 

 seen, whilst glaciers still crept down the npper valleys, in 

 which, to this day, traces of their former presence are to be 

 found. 



Such was the condition of England, when, as far as present 

 evidence goes, man made his first appearance here ; but 

 he did not originate here, and long before the early wanderers 

 of our race entered this country, there must have been mem- 

 bers of the human family in other lands. 



But how can we trace this history of man? What are the 

 proofs of his presence at a time of which no written history 

 is in existence ? What sort of man was he ? What were his 

 habits, how was he equipped for his life-struggle ? Can we 

 answer such questions ? In a measure we can do so. The 

 answer comes to us from the ancient gravel bed, the floor of 

 the cavern, and from other surface deposits of the earth 

 beneath our feet. 



From the gravel pit, and from the cave floor, the Avorks of 

 an intelligent being have been dug, whilst others have been 

 found scattered upon the surface of the soil — stone imple- 

 ments and weapons — in fact, the tools of man ; and although 

 in very few instances have human bones been found in con- 

 junction with the oldest of these, it is universally admitted 

 that in these relics we have clear evidence that men were 

 living on the face of the earth at a time far beyond the con- 

 fines of all written, traditional, or monumental history. 



But when did man first appear ? Was his advent pre- 

 glacial or post-glacial ; if pre-glacial, how far back must we 

 look to discover his earliest remains? Can we assign any 

 probable date to the epoch of his creation ? These are some 

 of the questions which we should like to be able to answer 

 definitely, but we cannot do so ; all that can as yet be 

 positively said is, that the evidence, especially that derived 

 from subsequent changes in physical geography and climate, 

 proved to have taken place, tends to sIioav that a very great 

 interval, which must be reckoned in thousands, rather than 

 in hundreds of years, intervenes between ourselves and the 

 men whose sole relics are the rude stone weapons so abundant 

 in these islands and on the adjoining continent. Calculations 

 based on such uncertain data as are afforded by the growth 

 of stalagmite or peat, or on the thickness of superficial 

 deposits generally, or on the alterations in the level of 

 streams, can afford us no certain chronological scale, nor can 

 even the present rate of erosion, and consequent alteration of 



