102 Evolution 



period, and there is ample interval between the Java 

 man and the " Eolithic " man to allow so great a 

 migration. But I must inform the reader that these 

 " eoliths " (early stones) are challenged by many 

 authorities, especially on the continent. From the 

 nature of the case, the earliest flint-chipping is so crude 

 and elementary that it is difficult to distinguish them 

 from accidentally chipped stones. Large numbers of 

 what are called " eoliths " may very well be flints that 

 have been chipped in the friction of the torrent bed, but 

 at the same time a number are so striking in their 

 contour that Sir Joseph Prestwich, Lord Avebury, Sir 

 E. Ray Lancaster, and other high authorities, declare 

 them to be the handiwork of a very primitive man. 

 Sir J. Evans is always quoted as a weighty opponent, 

 but at least we find him saying (in 1902) that Harrison's 

 "numerous and important discoveries " had "done 

 much to revolutionise our ideas as to the age and char- 

 acter of the drift deposits capping the chalk Downs in 

 west Kent." If they are genuine, they point (as Sir J. 

 Prestwich showed) to the existence of a very lowly type 

 of human being in this part of the world several hundred 

 thousand years ago. They are now claimed for other 

 parts of England, and for Egypt, India, and other 

 countries. 



Passing by these still disputed traces, we come to the 

 implements and remains of Paleolithic (early stone) man. 

 The evidence now becomes so abundant, and so plainly 

 tells the story of the evolution of humanity, that we 

 could dispense altogether with the Java man and the 

 eoliths. This earliest race of Paleolithic men has been 

 called the Neanderthal race, because the first and most 

 complete remains were found at Neanderthal (near 

 Dusseldorf in Germany). It roamed over what are 

 now Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, 



