998 The American Naturalist. [December, 
great certainty as humanity can attain over the past. This, in 
a few words, is the foundation upon which paleolithic man in 
Europe now stands. This foundation might be broadened by 
much geological addition, but the argument would be none 
the more forcible. To put it more directly, certain flint imple- 
ments are found in a stratum of a known age, so that this par- 
ticular stratum comes to be recognized by all observers as 
their habitat. They are found elsewhere, truly, but when so 
found they usually bear indications of the vicissitudes they 
have undergone since leaving their home. Such flint imple- 
ments, further, are found associated with the remains of ani- 
mals which are universally admitted to belong to a given 
geological epoch. Here again they are so associated with such 
persistency, noted by such widely separated and independent 
observers, that the possibility of universal error is as wildly 
improbable as that of universal conspiracy. Such being the 
class of evidence upon which the antiquity of paleolithic man 
is founded, it is obvious that any attack, to be effectual, must 
be made on the premises. If it could be shown either that 
the paleeolithic implements were not found in their undisturbed 
bed, or that the animal remains near them had no connection 
with them, then any conclusions based upon such association 
would necessarily fall to the ground. 
Mr. McGuire takes, however, an entirely different stand: 
His theories are based upon his own experience as an amateur 
maker of stone implements, and his experiments have led him 
to the belief that it is far easier to make a polished stone im- 
plement than a chipped one, and that therefore polished flint 
implements are at least as old as those that are only chipped 
and not polished ! 
Has Mr. McGuire ever seen a specimen of Kafir or Polynes- 
ian carpentry? In the British Museum is a Kafir copy of a 
common European chair, made in the usual fashion as to 
shape, with slender spars for a back, a solid seat and spidery 
legs. This is cut from one solid block of wood, surely a far 
more difficult task than to make the chair by joining in the 
usual manner. Applying Mr. McGuire’s argument to this 
case, and it does not seem an unfair application, for both the 
ENA inp ipn as 
