CAUSE FOR THE OEIGIN OF THE TRADITION OP THE FLOOD. 283 



That Man lived at the time we are spealving of is now a 

 question not necessary to argne, since the fact of tlie 

 existence of Paleeohthic or Quaternary Man over the 

 whole of the area we have described, is, at the present 

 day, a Avell-established fact. Therefore that Early Man 

 must have suffered in this great catastrophe may be 

 taken for granted, as the dispersion of the Rubble-drift 

 took place at the close of the Quaternary pei'iod. At 

 the same time, although portions of the human skeleton 

 have been found in Quaternary bone-caves and in the 

 high-level Loess, it is chiefly by his stone tools and weapons 

 that the presence of Man in the Quaternary period has been 

 proved. In the Rubble-drift there are very scarce records 

 of human remains, but flint implements fashioned by the 

 hand of Man have been discovered in it at Rortslade near 

 Brighton, at Sangatte, Mentone, Algeria, and other places. 

 Little systenjatic search has, however, yet been made, and 

 the field is a new one. Besides the older settled countries of 

 Central Asia in which the tradition was preserved, that a 

 not incousiderable population was spread over Western 

 Europe and the shores of the Mediterranean, at a time 

 anterior to the Rubble-drift, is certain. Still further proofs 

 of Man having been involved \n this Avide-spread catastrophe 

 should be forthcoming, although, owing no doubt partly to 

 his having known better how to avoid the threatened 

 danger, his remains are rare in comparison with those of the 

 cotemporary animals. It must also be remembered that at 

 that time there were but few men compared with the vast 

 number of animals l;o be affected by the event. 



It is not easy to believe that any local river- or other land- 

 flood could have given rise to so sustained a Tradition as that 

 of the Flood, whereas a Submergence of this vast extent, and 

 of so exceptional a character, would be in accordance with 

 the magnitude of the recorded catastrophe, and of the deep 

 and lasting impression produced on those cotemporary peoples 

 who were sufficiently near to be cognisant of its results. 

 Nor would it accord less well with the remoteness of the 

 event, and the dimness of the Tradition.* 



* It is many years since first I had occasion to notice the exceptional 

 nature of the '^ Head" at Sangatte, but I did not then go beyond attri- 

 buting its fortnation to some temporary but unknown debacle ; and it was 

 on geological considerations aloue I was led to conclude that the South of 



