610 W. BOYD DAWK1NS ON THE MAMMAL-FAUNA 



more from the series of normal human fibulae than from the series 

 of those of Bears. At all events the obscure fragment in question 

 seems to me altogether insufficient to base any theory as to " Pre- " 

 or " Interglacial Man," both in itself and in the conditions of its 

 discovery. Prof. Busk, whose absence through indisposition this 

 evening I regret, has requested me to say on his part that he " should 

 not himself be inclined to rest or to base the existence of Preglacial 

 Man on a fragment of bone like that, about which it is impossible 

 that some doubt should not exist." 



Nor am I aware of any other cave which offers proof of the presence 

 of Man in this country before or during the Glacial period. Fixing 

 my eyes upon the Pleistocene fauna only, I find that that portion 

 of it to which Man belongs (the Arctic division) arrived in Britain 

 before the deposit of the Boulder-clays, and lived here afterwards, 

 and that therefore there are a priori grounds for the belief that Man 

 also arrived at the same time. Proof of this, however, is wanting, 

 unless the Lower Brick-earths of the Thames valley with Rhinoceros 

 megarhinus be taken to be Preglacial, in which the discovery of a 

 flint flake by the Rev. 0. Fisher (Proceed. West Lond. Scient. Assoc. 

 Sept. 1876) and myself in 1872 has been recently confirmed by that 

 of a second by Mr. It. W. Cheadle. 



In all probability, while the Pleistocene climate was being lowered 

 to such a degree as to allow of the invasion of Europe by the Arctic 

 animals Man came in ; and as the climate became so severe as to 

 allow of large tracts of ground in the north being covered with an 

 ice-sheet, and the higher grounds of Central and Southern Europe 

 with glaciers, Man and the animals were pushed down further to 

 the south. When the climate, after various oscillations, grew warmer, 

 they found their way again northwards and over the glaciated areas. 

 On this view Man would be Preglacial, Glacial, and Postglacial in 

 Europe, and it would be impossible to arrive at the age of any given 

 accumulation of his remains either in the caves or river-valleys, 

 apart from physical evidence in each case, — such evidence, for 

 example, as that recorded by Lyell, Prestwich, Evans, Wyatt, and 

 others regarding the fluviatile strata with Palaeolithic implements 

 at Bedford, Hoxne, and in the valley of the Thames, which are 

 proved to be newer than the Boulder-clay of their respective dis- 

 tricts, and to be therefore " Postglacial " in the sense of being after 

 the minimum temperature was reached, of which that Boulder- 

 clay is the sign*. I am unable to see that we gain any thing by 

 the term " Interglacial," which Mr. James Geikie proposes not 

 merely for these Palaeolithic gravels but for all those in France as 

 far south as the Pyrenees, without proving that any one of them is 

 covered by a Glacial deposit. 



C. The Palaeolithic Man of Creswell of late Pleistocene Age. 

 It seems to me that glaciers and icebergs and their work, however 



* The Palaeolithic gravels of Hoxiie, Bedford, and Teddington are considered 

 by Mr. Evans later than the Upper Boulder-clay of Searles Wood (Presidential 

 Address, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1875. p. lxxir). 



