GOSSIP ON ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 99 



which is a tenet of the modern school of philosophy, if thev admit 

 it at all, a good deal may be made out of Sir Charles Lyell's own 

 argument in support of this theory of the age of the remains in 

 the Aurignac grotto. Thus he says — " It is the normal state of 

 the earth's surface to be undergoing great alterations in one place, 

 while other areas, often in close proximity, remain for ages without 

 any modification. In one region, rivers are deepening and widen- 

 ing their channels, or the waves of the sea are undermining cliffs, 

 or the land is sinking beneath or rising above the waters, century 

 after century, or the volcano is pouring forth torrents of lava, or 

 showers of ashes; while in tracts hard by, the ancient forest, or 

 extensive heath, or the splendid city, continue scatheless and 

 motionless." There may then have been elevations here, and 

 depressions at no great distance. The floods which covered the 

 face of the country in other parts, and filled caves with the bones 

 of men, and animals now extinct, whether Xoachian, or a conse- 

 quence of them, or otherwise, may have spared the region in which 

 the Aurignac grotto is situated, while they fulfilled their mission upon 

 the fauna at a distance, nigh or afar. The Aurignac grotto, there- 

 fore, while it shows that man may have existed with animals now 

 extinct, afibrds no proof that he was as old in time as they; or 

 even that all the monstrous existences that peopled the world at 

 his advent, became extinct at the great catastrophe which preserved 

 a large proportion of the species that now remain. 



Our own country affords some remarkable instances of the 

 presence of man and his works on the scene, long previous to its 

 discovery by Europeans, and the introduction of civiHzation and 

 refinement. It is easily ascertained at the present day, that the 

 aboriginal race in this part of the continent, lived by hunting and 

 fishing, and used stone and bone weapons of offence and defence, 

 and implements of industry or domestic economy, precisely similar 

 in form and fashion to those that stretch beyond the historic period 

 in Europe. There has been no intervening bronze age in this part 

 of the American continent. The remains and relics are the veritable 

 weapons, utensils and pottery, iii type and material, as were used 

 by the remotest Gaul, Briton, and Scandinavian, long before a bronze 

 implement was introduced among them. We are thus pointed to an 

 interesting fact. That the ancient people of Europe had become 



