84 



NATURE 



\_May 27, 1 8 So 



only one or two of the degenerate Ascidians ? How is 

 it else that some savages are still in their stone age, and 

 that Prof. Dawson still believes that mankind is only 

 6,000 years old ? 



We see no reason whatever, from evolutionary grounds, 

 why man should not have existed in the miocene times. 

 Anthropomorphic apes were already in those times 

 abundant and varied, and comparative anatomy points 

 to the progenitor of man having been an ancestor of the 

 present existing anthropomorphs, combining many of 

 their several characters. At the same time we do not 

 wish to appear to assert that man did then exist, but we 

 think it rather a pity that the author did not give good 

 illustrations of the miocene flint flakes and the notched 

 ib, if only to show, as we believe is the case, that they 



do not exhibit any very definite traces of handiwork, 

 and has not formed a more certain judgment as to 

 whether the objects are artificial or not. 



We have dwelt upon this matter at some length, because 

 an important question of principle is involved in which we 

 are at variance with the author. With regard to every- 

 thing else in the book we cannot but offer our best thanks to 

 him. His extended experience in cave-hunting, his critical 

 knowledge of geology and of the later tertiary mammalia, 

 have long rendered liim an authority of first rank on the 

 subject of which he treats, and.-he has in the present 

 volume combined with great care all available published 

 information with the results of his own investigations. 

 The book represents with great clearness the present 

 state of our knowledge with regard to the antiquity of 



Fig 2 — Tojth 



Fig. 3. — Reindeer incised on antler, Kesserloch, \. 



FiG. 4. 



hatchet, Rohenhausen 



man, for though it treats principally of Early Man in 

 Britain, no details of importance with regard to dis- 

 coveries bearing on the subject on the Continent or 

 elsewhere are omitted. 



The whole account is most clearly and logically 

 arranged, and written in a very readable and entertain- 

 ing style. It is popular as well as scientific. 



The author considers the evidence of man in early 

 pleistocene strata as doubtful. It is in the mid-pleistocene 

 deposits that man first appears without any doubt, as 

 proved by flint implements found in the lower brick-earths 

 at Crayford by the author himself. Man was at that 

 period associated in the Thames valley with six extinct 

 species of mammalia, viz., three species of rhinoceros, R. 

 megarhinus, tichorhinus, and kptorJtimts, the mammoth 

 and Elephas a)itiquus, and the Irish elk. Large herds of 



horses, stags, and bisons frequented the open country, the 

 hippopotamus floated about lazily in the Thames, whilst 

 the thickets were inhabited by wolves, foxe-, brown and 

 grisly bears, huge lions, hyaenas, and wild boars. 



We cannot here follow the author througho.;t his well- 

 told story, but can only dip here and there into his work 

 to give our readers a sample of its qualities. Most 

 interesting is a palxolithic implement discovered in 

 England so long ago as the year 1690. It was found 

 with the remains of an elephant in the heart of London in 

 the gravel at Gray's Inn Lane, and having been preserved 

 in the Sloane collection in the British Museum for more 

 than 150 years, was ultimately recognised by Mr. A. W. 

 Franks as identical with those discovered so long after- 

 wards in the gravels of Amiens anl Abbeville. It belongs 

 to the late pleistocene river deposits. The accompanying 



