258 THE EEV. J. MAGENS MELLO, M.A., E.G.S., ETC.^ 



between the magnificent evidence of Egyptian civilization in its 

 incised stone woi'k, and the early phases of carving which were 

 prevalent amongst the Paleolithic people of Central France. 

 Southwards, over Africa, as far south as Cape Colony, stones are 

 carved with pictures of animals. The bushmen are reputed in 

 prehistoric times, and in some cases in historic times, to have 

 carved the rocks amongst which they lived. There is a curious 

 analogy to this incised work, in the kind of carving, on a much 

 smaller scale, which was executed by prehistoric man in Europe. 

 If -we adopt the hypothesis of man migrating northwards, there 

 is the counter-hypothesis to be considered whether he did not 

 also migrate southwards. 



On the other hand, we may infer that as Paleolithic man 

 developed skill as a hunter, he probably exterminated the animals 

 of the gravels in Europe which are extinct. Then the gener.x 

 which survive in the north have no necessary connection with 

 those of the south which could be attributed to migration in 

 opposite directions, since they have not been killed off in 

 those areas. Those of the south may have been modified some- 

 what from the ancient European fossil types by the influence 

 of climatic circumstances in Africa, since the gravels were 

 •deposited, just as Egyptian or Assyrian civilization varied with 

 time from the oldest known type of Western Europe, but there 

 is no proof known to me that the mammals of North Africa were 

 not inhabitants of Africa when our gravels were formed. 



Professor J. F. Blake, M.A., F.G.S., etc. — It is some time sinca 

 I paid much attention to this subject, though I did so some few 

 years ago. 



Some of the points which Mr. Mello raised struck me as being 

 verj'^ fairly put. The first question which I would say a word 

 upon is with regard to the possible greater antiquity of man than 

 he appeai-s inclined to admit. I could never find that there was 

 any very valid reason to believe him to be of the Miocene age. 

 The flints and other things that represent him do not seem to 

 prove it in my own mind ; but I was always struck by the 

 arguments brought forth by Charlesworth,* not mentioned by 

 Mr. Mello, but never, I think, really overcome, that in the deposits 

 of Suffolk you find bored teeth in which the bored hole has a 



* An interesting discussion on these took place on the occasion of Mr. 

 €harlesworth bringing the discovery of sharks' teeth, of which some 

 were found bored, before a meeting of the Victoria Institute. 



