TRANSACTIONS Ol' THJi SECTIONS. Ill 



even scientific men with this idea — which yet rested on purely negative evidence, 

 and covild not he supported by any arguments of scientific value — that numerous 

 facts which had been presented at intervals for half a century, all tending to prove 

 the existence of man at very remote epochs, were silently ignored ; and, more than 

 this, the detailed statements of three distinct and careful observers coniirming each 

 other were rejected by a great scientific Society as too improbable for publication, 

 only because' they proved (if they were true) the coexistence of man with extinct 

 animals *. 



But this state of belief in opposition to facts could not long continue. In 1851) 

 a few of our most eminent geologists examined for tliemselves into the alleged 

 occuiTence of flint implements in the gravels of the north of France, which had 

 been made public fourteen years before, and found them strictly correct. The 

 caverns of Devonshire were about the same time carefidly examined by equally 

 eminent observers, and were found fully to be.ar out the statements of those who 

 had published their results eighteen years before. Flint implements began to be 

 foimd in all suitable localities in the south of England, when carefully searched 

 for, often in gravels of equal antiquity with those of France. Caverns giving 

 evidence of human occupation at vaiious remote periods were explored in Belgium 

 and the south of France ^lake-dwellings were examined in Switzerland — refuse- 

 heaps in Denmark — and thus a whole series of remains have been discovered 

 carrying back the history of mankind from the earliest historic periods to a long 

 distant past. The antiquity of the races thus discovered can only be generally 

 determined by the successively earlier and earlier stages through which we can 

 trace them. As we go back metals soon disappear, and we find onlj' tools and 

 weapons of stone and of bone. The stone weapons get ruder and ruder ; pottery, 

 and then the bone implements, cease to occur ; and in the earliest stage we find 

 only chipped fiints of rude design, though still of unmistakably human workman- 

 ship. In like manner domestic animals disappear as we go backward ; and though 

 the dog seems to have been the earliest, it is doubtful whether the makers of the 

 ruder flint implements of the gravels posses.sed even this. Still more important 

 as a measure of time are the changes of the earth's surface, of the distribution of 

 animals, and of climate which have occur-ed during the human period. At a 

 comparatively recent epoch in the record of prehistoric times we find that the 

 Baltic was far Salter than it is now and produced abundance of oysters, and that 

 Denmark was covered with pine forests inhabited by Capercailzies, such as now 

 only occur further north in Norway. A little earlier we find that reindeer were 

 common even in the south of France ; and still earlier this animal was accom- 

 panied by the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, b)^ the arctic glutton, and by huge 

 bears and lions of extinct species. The presence of such animals implies a change 

 of climate ; and both in the caves and gravels we find proofs of a much colder 

 climate than now prevails in Western Europe. Still more remaa-kable are the 

 changes of the earth's surface which have been effected during man's occupation of 

 it. Many extensive valleys in England and France are believed by the best ob- 

 servers to have been deepened at least a hundred feet ; caverns now far out of 

 the reach of any stream must for a long succession of years have had streams 

 flowing through them, at least in times of floods ; and this often implies that vast 

 masses of solid rock have since been worn away. In Sardinia land has risen at 

 least 300 feet since men lived there wlio made pottery and probably used fishing- 

 nets t ; while in Kent's Cavern remains of man are found buried beneath two 

 separate beds of stalagmite, each having a distinct texture, and each covering a 

 deposit of cave-earth havmg well-marked differential characters, while each con- 

 tains a distinct assemblage of extinct animals. 



Such, briefly, are the results of the evidence that has been rapidly accumulating 

 for about fifteen years as to the antiquity of man ; and it has been confirmed by so 

 many discoveries of a like natm-e in all parts of the globe, and especially by the 



* In 1854 (?) a communication from the Torquay Natural-History Society confirming 

 previous accounts by Mr. Godwin-Austen. Mr. Vivian, and the Eev. Mr. M'Enery, that 

 worked flints occurred in Keiit's Hole with remains of extinct species, was rejected as too 

 improbable for publication. 



t Lyell's ' Antiquity of Man,' fourth edition, p. 1 15. 



