G() WILSON 



they descended from Heaven and that the presence of one in a 

 dvvelHng would be certain protection against lightning. There 

 is mention of a stone ax found in Egypt engraved with hiero- 

 glyphics which showed that its unusual character was noted 

 and that it had been kept perhaps as a kind of talisman. Later 

 on the stone axes and other implements became recognized, 

 especially by antiquarians as the works of a people who with 

 their civilization had long since passed away. At the same 

 time, the science of geology was developing and making head- 

 way. The different kinds of rocks and their formation became 

 better known, and the real nature of the sedimentary with their 

 fossil contents, which had given rise to many wild and curious 

 theories became thoroughly recognized and established. Cuvier, 

 called the Father of Anatomy, gave the first powerful stimulus 

 to the study of the fossil vertebrates, mostly species now extinct, 

 and finally the question began to be asked, " Is there a fossil 

 man?" Although used in its broadest extension, the term 

 fossil is taken to signify any evidence of former life, it is gener- 

 ally meant that the remains antedate the present epoch and 

 belong as far back at least as the Quarternary or last geological 

 period. The Quarternary opened with the development of the 

 great continental ice sheets in Northern Europe and North 

 America, to which the name Ice Age owes its origin, and closed 

 with the ushering in of the climate and physical conditions 

 approximating those we have to-day. It is in deposits formed 

 during the Glacial Period that the earliest authentic traces of 

 man have thus far been found. In glacial gravels, the diluvium 

 of rivers, in caves, and deposits formed during the Glacial 

 Period and later, the implements and works of man have been 

 found. Human bones are preserved for so long a time only 

 under exceptional circumstances and are very rare. In the 

 river gravels of the Somme in France where the implements 

 are comparatively abundant, great numbers having been found, 

 no human bone has as yet come to light, but, as has been 

 remarked by Sir John Lubbock, the bones of no animal as 

 small as man are preserved in the river drift deposits. 



One of the first finds recorded was that of a worked flint. 



