Revleius — Dr. James Ge/kie's Antiquity of Man. 553 



]. — Prehistoric Man. 

 The ANTiauiTY of Man in Europe. By James Geikie, LL.D., 

 D.C.L., F.E..S. 8vo ; pp. xx, 317, with 4 maps. Edinburgh: 

 Oliver & Boyd, 1914. Trice 10s. 6d. 



PKOFESSOR JAMES GEIKIE has made the Munro Lectureship, 

 "which he held in 1913, an opportunity for restating his views 

 on the interpretation of the Pleistocene deposits of Western Europe, 

 with numerous references to the latest discoveries. The result is 

 a most readable volume, which will be welcomed equally by the 

 professed geologist and by the intellectual onlooker who desires 

 a broad statement without too much confusing detail. As might 

 be anticipated from the nature of the author's own researches, the 

 geological evidence alone is dealt with ; and the caution engendered 

 by these lifelong researclies prevents Professor Geikie from giving 

 much encouragement to those who venture to express geological 

 time in terms of years. He is satisfied when he has pointed out how 

 many and how great changes have taken place in this part of the 

 world since man first appeared here. 



It is clear that man has lived in Europe since the beginning of the 

 Pleistocene period, but Professor Geikie thinks that more satisfactory 

 evidence is needed than that of chipped flints before his presence in 

 the Pliocene becomes certain. He specially doubts the evidence of 

 the so-called eoliths, for those found "in the older Tertiary forma- 

 tions cannot be distinguished from those met with in Miocene, 

 Pliocene, and even Pleistocene deposits ". Hence, if we accept them 

 " as proofs of man's existence in Eocene and Oligocene times, we 

 must admit that in his case — and in his case alone — evolution must 

 have been at a standstill during a prodigiously extended period ". 



The first lecture deals with the animals and plants which lived in 

 Europe during Pleistocene times, and is illustrated with several good 

 woodcuts and photographs. The conclusion seems inevitable that 

 considerable changes of climate have occurred — that the theory of 

 great annual migrations to account for the apparent mingling of 

 mammalian remains is negatived by the evidence of the plants, 

 " which could not have indulged in such feats of travel." 



The next two lectures refer to the testimony of the caves, and 

 briefly describe the ' culture-stages ' recognizable in the succession of 

 stone implements. The interpretation of the cave-deposits themselves 

 is specially discussed from the geological point of view, and many 

 interesting results are arrived at. A description of the Schweizersbild 

 cave, near Schaifhausen, Switzerland, shows tundra, steppe, and 

 forest faunas in succession from the later part of the Palaeolithic to the 

 early part of the Neolithic period. 



The lecture on the river-drifts gives a concise account of Comniont's 

 latest researches in the valley of the Sorame, and Professor Geikie 

 concludes that there must be some accidental mixing of the 

 mammalian bones in the deposits hitherto studied in the valley of tlie 

 Thames. He also emphasizes the importance of Mr. Hazzledine 



