66 MAN. 



bone of an animal. If a competent geologist should assert 

 that he had recently discovered the bones of the mam- 

 moth or Siberian rhinoceros in undoubted pliocene forma- 

 tion, it would be readily assented to. But let the same 

 geologist declare that mingled with these bones were human 

 remains, at once he would be either attacked by learned 

 pedants, or else they would amuse themselves by explain- 

 ing away the force of the discovery. 



It is not the purpose here to enter into a discussion 

 of the antiquity of man, but only to give a few illustra- 

 tions, with observations, which prove that man was coeval 

 with these two colossal proboscidians. Thousands of dis- 

 coveries have been made establishing this fact, and to 

 enumerate them would be unnecessary. A few of the 

 evidences will meet all that is required. When the remains 

 of man are sought for in formations older than the quater- 

 nary their scarcity is at once apparent. This is also true 

 of some of the extinct animals. In some cases not bones 

 enough have been found to make a complete skeleton. In 

 regard to man it should be observed that in those primi- 

 tive times there were but comparatively few people. Even 

 though certain districts were well populated we should not 

 expect that their bones would be plenty, for, when we turn 

 to modern times, we find a repetition of the same phenom- 

 enon. Of the millions of the human race that die every 

 year, although the bodies are carefully laid away, yet, after 

 two or three generations have come and gone, scarcely a 

 vestige remains. When the Lake of Haarlem was con- 

 verted into dry land, and through this made land thousands 

 of miles of ditches and trenches had been dug, and, 

 although naval engagements had taken place there and 

 forty thousand men or more had been buried in its land, 

 or drowned in its waters, yet no human bones were found, 

 and only a few remains of human art. The flint tools 

 of primitive man were not numerous, and undoubtedly as 



