THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. VIII. 



No. VIII.— AUGUST, 1901. 



(D:Eix(3-xi<rjL.Xj -A.:rtic3les. 



I. — The Earliest Traces of Man.^ 

 By Sir Henry H. Howokth, K.C.I.E., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



THE origin of Man remains an unsolved problem. In spite of 

 very keen and anxious researches, extending over many years, 

 we are still without a real cine to the difficulty. Whence and how 

 and when he came we do not know, and we had better say so. 



In the valley of the Nile, where the earliest knowledge of writing 

 has been traced, our written records take us back perhaps 7,000 

 years. At that period the various races and varieties into which 

 the human race is divided by the naturalist were apparently com- 

 pletely diiferentiated. The different families of language which 

 the philologer has discriminated were sharply defined, while his 

 thought and the products of his thought (of which language is an 

 index), of comparative archaeology, mythology, etc., etc., show that 

 these races were as trenchantly distinguished as they are now. 



Whatever else this means it must mean (if the history of mankind 

 has been continuous) that the origin of man is a long way off, 

 a much longer way off than people were once willing to admit. 

 The differences and distinctions hei'e pointed out must have taken 

 a very long time to mature, and if man originated in one stock, 

 which has overspread and conquered the earth, as some of us think, 

 it must have taken a vast time for the many languages, religions, 

 customs, and thoughts, which characterize his many and varied 

 clans and tribes and nations, to diverge so much from each other. 



It may be that presently with the assistance of comparative 

 methods applied scientifically to language, religion, and art, we may 

 be able to disentangle the crooked threads into which the web of 

 human progress has been woven ; but this must take a long time. 

 It will involve a wide and searching analysis of difficult details, 



1 " Paltcolithic Man in Africa," by Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S. : Proc. Eoy. 

 Soc, 1900, vol. Ixvi. 



"Eolithic Implements," by Rev. R. Ashington BuUen, B.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. : 

 Trans. Vict. Inst., 1900. 



" A Collection of Stone Implements in the Mayer Museum," by H. 0. Forbes, 

 LL.D. : Bull. Liverpool Mus., 1900, ii. 



" The Age of the Siurface Flint Implements of Eg\-pt and Somaliland," by 

 H. 0. Forbes, LL.D. : Bull. Liverpool Mus., 1901, iii. " 



DECADE IV. — VOL. VIII. — NO. VIII. 22 



