latcd that the denudation of the Wealden Valley must have 

 required more than 150,000,000 of years. These figures seem 

 to us enormous, but to the Geologist, who traces the vast 

 changes which our globe has undergone, and who knows how 

 slowly some of them must be and are still effected, there 

 is nothing extraordinary in their magnitude. However, as 

 Lubbock remarks — " Our belief in the antiquity of man rests 

 not on isolated calculation, but on the changes which have 

 taken place since his appearance : changes in the geography, 

 in the fauna, and in the climate of Europe; valleys have deep- 

 ened, widened, and partially filled up again ; caves through 

 which subterranean rivers flowed are now left dry, &c," 

 Thus the vast desert of Sahara was undoubtedly once sea ; 

 its cliffs and ancient beaches are still quite visible, and the 

 common cockle is still found living in some of its salt lakes, 

 and there can be no doubt that what are called Europe and 

 Africa were at this time united. But the question now arises. 

 What manner of men were these our early ancestors ? Were 

 they a fairer, stronger, wiser race than ourselves, or do we 

 derive our origin from a type far lower than our own, or even, 

 as some would have us believe, by insensible transitions and 

 development from the ape ? What was Primitive Man like ? 

 This is a subject on which there has been much controversy, 

 but I think all the weight of evidence tends to prove most 

 clearly that pre-historic man was very like, both in physical 

 structure and mental development, what the best advanced of 

 modern savages are now. Thus if we take the few fossil 

 skeletons which have been found under circumstances free 

 from all suspicion as to age, we find a skull which is not 

 unlike that of many existing races of the present day, while 

 the bones of the leg are thicker and the insertions of the 

 muscles are more prominent, as might be expected in men 

 who led so active and savage a life. Thus of the Engis 

 skull, about whose antiquity there can be no doubt, Huxley 

 says " It is a fair average human skull, which might have 

 belonged to a philosopher or might have contained the 

 thoughtless brains of a savage." In the case of one other 

 most remarkable skull — the Neanderthal skull, it is, however, 

 very different, the sloping forehead and enormously thick and 

 prominent superciliary ridges certainly give it a very apelike 



