964 REPORT—1 890. 
it is in the highest degree unlikely that we shall ever discover the exact cradle of 
-our race, or be able to point to any object as the first product of the industry and 
intelligence of man. We may, however, I think, hope that from time to time 
fresh discoveries may be made of objects of human art, under such circumstances 
and conditions that we may infer with. certainty that at some given point in the 
world’s history mankind existed, and in sufficient numbers for the relics that 
‘attest this existence to show a correspondence among themselves, even when 
discovered at remote distances from each other. 
Thirty-one years ago, at the meeting of this Association at Aberdeen, when 
‘Sir Charles Lyell, in the Geological Section, called attention to the then recent 
discoveries of Paleolithic implements in the Valley of the Somme, his conclusions 
‘as to their antiquity were received with distrust by not a few of the geologists 
present. Five years afterwards, in 1864, when Sir Charles presided over the 
meeting of this Association at Bath, it was not without reason that he quoted the 
‘saying of the Irish orator, that ‘they who are born to affluence cannot easily 
imagine how long a time it takes to get the chill of poverty out of one’s bones.’ 
Nor was he wrong in saying that ‘we of the living generation, when called upon 
‘to make grants of thousands of years in order to explain the events of what 
is called the modern period, shrink naturally at first from making what seems 
so lavish an expenditure of past time. Throughout our early education we 
have been accustomed to such strict economy in all that relates to the chronology 
of the earth and its inhabitants in remote ages, so fettered have we been by old 
traditional beliefs, that even when our reason is convinced, and we are persuaded 
that we ought to make more liberal grants of time to the geologist, we feel how 
hard it is to get the chill of poverty out of our bones.’ 
And yet of late years how little have we heard of any scruples in accepting as 
a recognised geological fact that, both on the Continent of Europe and in these 
islands, which were then more closely connected with that continent, man existed 
during what is known as the Quaternary Period, and was a contemporary of the 
mammoth and hairy rhinoceros, and of other animals, several of which are either 
entirely or locally extinct. It is true that there are still some differences of opinion 
as to the exact relation in time of the beds of river gravel containing the relics of 
man and the Quaternary fauna to the period of great cold which is known as the 
Glacial Period. Some authors have regarded the gravels as pre-Glacial, some as 
Glacial, and some as post-Glacial; but, after all, this is more of a question of terms 
than of principle. Ail are agreed, for instance, that in the eastern counties of 
England implements are found in beds posterior to the invasion of cold conditions 
in that particular region, though there may be doubts as to how much later these 
conditions may have prevailed in other parts of this country. All, too, are agreed 
that since the deposit of the gravels considerable changes have taken place in the 
configuration of the surface of the country, and that the time necessary for 
such changes must have been very great, though those in whose bones the chill of 
poverty still clings are inclined to call in influences by which the time required for 
the erosion of the river valleys in which the gravels occur may be theoretically 
diminished. 
On the other hand, there have been not a few who, feeling that the evidence of 
the existence of the human race has now been satisfactorily established for Quater- 
nary times, and that there is no proof that what has been found in the ordinary 
gravels belongs to anything like the first phases of the family of man, have sought 
to establish his existence in far earlier Tertiary times. In the view that earlier 
relics of man than those found in the river gravels may eventually be discovered, 
most of those who have devoted special attention to the subject will, [ think, 
concur. But such an extension of time can only be granted on conclusive evidence 
of its necessity ; and before accepting the existence of Tertiary man the grounds 
on which his family-tree is based require to be most carefully examined. 
Let me say a few words as to the principal instances on which the believer in 
Tertiary man relies. These may be classified under three heads:'—(1) the pre- 
1 See A. Arcelin, L’homme tertiaire, Paris, 20 rue de la Chaise, 1889. 
