282 JOSEPH PEESTWICH; P.R.S., F.G.S., ON A POSSIBLE 



to sustain the opinion tliat a period of 70,000 to 80,000 years 

 intervened between the close of the Ghxcial period and the 

 appearance of Neolithic Man, but the same conclusion is 

 forced on us on archasological grounds alone ; for it is difficult 

 to suppose that Palajolithic Man Avith his stone Aveapons and 

 tools, his sculptured bones and rude but not inartistic sketches 

 of the cotemporary annuals, could in that long interval of 

 time have made so little progress as that exhibited by the 

 similar surroun thugs of Neolithic Man. 



To those who have followed me in this enquiry it cannot 

 have escaped notice that we have possibly in the wide- 

 spread catastrophe involved in the foregoing hypothesis, a 

 more adequate cause for the Tradition of the Flood than any 

 local river or land flood, however great it may have been. 

 Such floods, whether of the Euphrates, the Tigris, or any 

 other large river, have been recurrent at comparatively short 

 intervals, and have attracted but little more than temporary 

 attention. Their limits also are restricted to the valleys, 

 broad though they may be, and consequently would seem 

 to iuvolve no such Avide-spread catastrophe as that indicated 

 by the Tradition of the Flood. Ea^cu those of the Yellow 

 River, extensive as its inundations are, make but little im- 

 pression on a busy people, and are generally soon forgotten. 



On the other hand Ave have in this submergence an 

 inundation of continental dimensions, and destructive to 

 large populations of men and animals. The fcAv who 

 resorted to heights and mountain summits, could alone 

 have escaped, and, from those centres, peopled afresh the 

 eurrouuding areas. 



Although our knoAvledge of all the phenomena is still very 

 imperfect, it is remarkable how in all the leading points the 

 facts agree Avith the Tradition. In each area the few sur- 

 vivors may well, in their limited world, haA^e looked upon the 

 Flood as universal. To them, as the subsidence Avas sIoav, for 

 the land niOA- ement Avould not have been apparent, and the 

 only visible sign must have been the slow encroachment of 

 the Avaters over their visible land. The geological phenomena 

 have also led me to suppose that the submergence Avas, as in 

 the Tradition, of short duration, and the retreat of the waters 

 comparativel;y gradi\al, Avhile the great destruction of animal 

 life is sufficiently shown in the numerous remains preserved 

 in the difterent forms of the Rubble-drift, Avherever the con- 

 ditions were favourable. 



