REVIEWS— GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF MAN’S ANTIQUITY. 38S 
has been seized upon by the supporters of the Darwinian theory, as 
strongly confirmatory of their views regarding the assumed relation- 
ship of progression. between the Quadrumana and Man. An inter- 
pretation of this kind, however, based on the examination of a single 
_8kull, or other equally imperfect data, is, at least, premature. To 
‘substantiate the theory, a much larger amount of evidence is assuredly 
“required: and even if the majority of cavern skulls exhibited a 
Bimian aspect, the question would still remain unproved, since the 
existence of a.structural relationship between the ape and man, as 
between all forms of the same general type, is necessarily and univer- 
‘sally admitted. But-on this subject we shall have more to. say as.we 
_ proceed. 
Keeping, at present, to the first question, we have no hesitation in 
regarding the extinction of the mammoth and other departed forms 
‘of the Post-Tertiary period, as long subsequent. to the appearance. of 
‘Man. This alone would prove the high antiquity of our race: since 
the extinction of these types cannot be supposed to have taken. place 
in any sudden manner ; more especially when we consider the. great 
“abundance of their remains, as those of the mammoth for example, 
‘in s0 many localities. Their extinction, thongh aided to some. extent 
by the agency of man, was undoubtedly the work of slow physieal 
changes, going on continuously throughout a long series of ages. 
This conclusion, as bearing on the antiquity of our species, isin har- 
“mony with that drawn from the uprise of the ancient. sea-beach .(con- 
taining relics of man’s industry) on the Sardinian coast. 
And other proofs of this antiquity are still forthcoming. Amongst 
‘the more interesting, we may refer to the curious facts gleaned from 
‘ the so-called “ refuse-heaps”’ or “ shell-mounds”’ of Denmark, and 
“from the great peat-deposits of the same country, as described in one 
of the earlier chapters of the work before us. At certain points along 
‘the coast of Denmark, writes Sir Charles Lyell “mounds may be seen 
consisting chiefly of thousands of cast-away shells of the oyster, cockle, 
“and other mollusks of the same species as those which are now eaten 
“by, man. These shells are plentifully mixed up with the bones of 
various quadrupeds, birds, and fish, which served as the food of the 
‘rade hunters and fishers by whom the mounds were accumulated. 
Such accumulations are called by the Danes, Kjikkenmidding or 
“ kitchen-refuse heaps.” Scattered all through them are flint knives, 
hatchets and other instruments of stone, horn, wood and bone, with 
fragments of coarse pottery, mixed with charcoal and cinders, but 
