PREHISTORIC MAN IN BURMA. 323 



books on such subjects are not numerous ; but it is, in fact, sur- 

 prising that nearly every book in which the antiquity of man is 

 discussed at all, and that has come under the writer's notice, 

 makes a special allusion to these Yenangyoung flints, and the 

 lessons that they teach. 



In ' The Wonderful Century,' edition 1901, Mr. A. R. Wallace 

 says, on p. 131, referring to the great antiquity of man : — " But 

 evidence has been steadily accumulating of his existence at the 

 time of the glacial epoch, and even before it ; while two dis- 

 coveries of recent date seem to carry back his age far into pre- 

 glacial times. These are, first, the human cranium, bones, and 

 works of art which have been found more than a hundred feet 



deep in the gold-bearing gravels of California The other 



case is that of rude stone implements discovered, by a geologist 

 of the Indian Survey in Burma, in deposits which are admitted 

 to be of at least Pliocene age." In the sixth edition (1900) of 

 ' Prehistoric Times,' p. 402, Lord Avebury, after referring to 

 the Java skull, says : — " Dr. Noetling, of the Geological Survey 

 of India, has also recorded unquestionable flint flakes found in 

 Burma with remains of Rhinoceros perimensis and Hippotherium 

 (Hipparion) antelopinum in strata considered to belong to the 

 Pliocene period." In 'The Races of Man,' by J. Deniker (1900), 

 reference is also made to these flints and the polished bone ; 

 and in his popular little book on the ' Story of Primitive Man,' 

 Mr. Edward Clodd also mentions them. No doubt, also, many 

 learned societies, both in England and Germany, have published 

 papers on the subject. 



There has thus sprung up round these flints a more or less 

 considerable literature, and, taking them together with the 

 polished bone, the tendency has been to accept them as evidences 

 of the existence of man at a time when the ferruginous con- 

 glomerate at Yenangyoung was being deposited, and when the 

 beasts whose remains (chiefly teeth) are found in that deposit 

 were walking the earth. Already we seem to be on a bowing 

 acquaintance with our rude ancestors of pre-glacial times. They 

 chipped flints into flakes, breaking down the angle at the base> 

 no doubt to fix into a handle ; while some flakes, that were not 

 so well fitted for arrow-heads, they doubtless used in the hand as 

 scrapers. After a good meal off a thigh of Hippopotamus 



2 c 2 



