pkesident's address. 265 



addition of the Septuagint, the received chronology even of 

 Archbishop Usher has some weight of authority on its side. 



Nor when we consult physical science, where it borders on 

 pre-historic Archaeology, can we speak except with a cautious 

 reticence. Principal Dawson, the eminent discoverer of Eozbon 

 Canadense, proposes that instead of the Palaeolithic, or Old-Stone 

 Age, and the Neolithic, or New-Stone Age, with the succeeding 

 Bronze and Iron Ages of Sir John Lubbock and his followers, 

 we should speak of the divisions as Palceo-Cosmic and Neo- Cosmic, 

 the Old and New World of mankind, simply our long-familiar 

 Ante-diluvian and Post-diluvian, as satisfying all the require- 

 ments, even in connection with glacial theories and their relation 

 to the antiquity of the human race. No hard-and-fast line can 

 be drawn between these periods ; they are, by general consent, 

 allowed to be relative terras not of universal application, but 

 useful within a limited space, and for present purposes. Our 

 Neolithic or Bronze Age in Western Europe was probably syn- 

 chronous with a high state of civilization in Western Asia ; and 

 even in Britain one nomad or settled tribe of pre-historic hunters 

 might be more civilized, comparatively, than a neighbouring 

 tribe, as is the case among the aborigines of North America to 

 this day ; and the same tribe might use and leave behind them 

 different classes of implements in different localities, according 

 to their varying pursuits and needs at different seasons of the 

 year. 



I have before me what I believe to be an axe of ironstone, 

 similar to the Indian haematite-ironstone axes, of which only 

 one example from Sussex is mentioned by Mr. Evans. * Until 

 the incrustration at the thin edge flaked off lately from ex- 

 posure to the weather on a garden rockery, I had not noticed 

 any direct traces of human handiwork upon the nodule. Mr. 

 Hugh Miller, E.G.S., first called my attention to the chippings 

 on both sides, which bring it to a sharp edge, like the usual palaeo- 

 lithic celts of flint. A very dangerous weapon it would prove 



* •' Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain," chap. IV., p. 76. This implement or 

 weapon of clay-ironstone is nearly nine inches long, three inches wide, and two inches 

 thick at the upper end. 



