418 TROPICAL NATURE VII 
north in Norway. A little earlier we find that reindeer 
were common even in the south of France; and still earlier 
this animal was accompanied by the mammoth and woolly 
rhinoceros, by the arctic glutton, and by huge bears and 
lions of extinct species. The presence of such animals implies 
a change of climate; and both in the caves and gravels we 
find proofs of a much colder climate than now prevails in 
Western Europe. Even more remarkable are the changes 
of the earth’s surface which have been effected during man’s 
occupation of it. Many extensive valleys in England and 
France are believed by the best observers to have been 
deepened at least a hundred feet; caverns now far out of the 
reach of any stream must for a long succession of years have 
had streams flowing through them, at least in times of 
floods ; and this often implies that vast masses of solid rock 
have since been worn away. In Sardinia land has risen at 
least 300 feet since men lived there who made pottery and 
probably used fishing-nets ;! while in Kent’s Cavern remains 
of man are found buried beneath two separate beds of 
stalagmite, each having a distinct texture, and each covering 
a deposit of cave-earth having well-marked differential 
characters, while each contains a distinct assemblage of 
extinct animals. 
Such, briefly, are the results of the evidence that has 
been rapidly accumulating for about fifteen years, as to 
the antiquity of man; and it has been confirmed by so 
many discoveries of a like nature in all parts of the globe, 
and especially by the comparison of the tools and weapons 
of prehistoric man with those of modern savages (so that 
the use of even the rudest flint implements has become 
quite intelligible), that we can hardly wonder at the vast 
revolution effected in public opinion. Not only is the 
belief in man’s vast and still unknown antiquity universal 
among men of science, but it is hardly disputed by any well- 
informed theologian ; and the present generation of science- 
students must, we should think, be somewhat puzzled to 
understand what there was in the earliest discoveries that 
should have aroused such general opposition, and been met 
with such universal incredulity. 
1 Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, 4th ed., p. 115, 
