198 
But, before we give up the Bible history of man’s advent 
on this earth and of his exalted primitive condition, we would 
ask the advocates of man’s antiquity and former degradation 
for their proofs. 
When thus questioned, this is what they say :— 
1. A vast number of flint implements have been found in 
caves and in certain gravel deposits of Hurope, and from the 
very nature of these implements they must have been fashioned 
by the hands of man when he was in a state of savagery. 
2. A large number of human remains have been found 
under the stalagmite deposits in the caverns of the limestone 
rocks both in England and on the Continent of Europe, and, 
since these stalagmite deposits must have required many 
thousands of years to form, the human remains which are 
found beneath them must be older than the period when these 
deposits first began to be laid down. Here, then, we have 
two premises from which the conclusions as to man’s antiquity 
and former barbarism are drawn. If either of these premises 
can be shown to be false, then the conclusions drawn from them 
must of necessity be fallacious. 
Let us, therefore, examine them. 
And, first, as to the flint implements found in the drift. 
While we do not assert that none of these flint flakes were 
fashioned by some primitive race of men, we do say that many 
of them could have been produced by natural causes, such, for 
instance, as violent concussions which may have occurred 
when those great physical changes took place on the surface 
of the globe which resulted in the formation of the drift. 
Some may even have been formed by the effects of sand 
drifts, such as have been known to have taken place a few 
years ago ia some of the bays of New Zealand. Hither or 
both of these causes are not at all improbable, and would 
account for the number of such flints that are found together, 
a number so great, be it remembered, that the ratio of lost 
axes to the savage populations must have been very great. 
Secondly. As to the evidence drawn from the nature of 
the cave deposits, Mr. William Pengelly, in his lecture on 
Kent’s Cavern, delivered at Manchester, December 18, 1872, 
when referring to the antiquity of the human relics found in 
that cavern, said, “ Coming to the question of time, we have 
gone back some two thousand years at lJeast,—that is the 
minimum, it may be more,—before we get through the black 
mould. Weenter then the granular stalagmite, and we know 
from the nature of the case that that thickness of stalagmite 
