46 Dr J. W. Dawson on the Antiquity of Man. 



Sir Charles, to the Post-pliocene, geologically distinguished 

 from the Kecent by the fact that its deposits contain the 

 bones of many great extinct quadrupeds ; as for instance the 

 mammoth, Elephas 'primigenius, the woolly rhinoceros, R. 

 tichorhinus, and others, heretofore (but it would seem on 

 insufficient evidence) supposed to have disappeared before 

 the advent of man. The evidence now adduced that prim- 

 eval man was really contemporary with these creatures is 

 manifold and apparently conclusive, and in the work before 

 us is carefully sifted and weighed in all its bearings, much 

 being rejected as inapplicable or uncertain. The evidences 

 relied on are cliiefly the following : — 



1. Human remains found with those of extinct animals 

 in caves in Belgium, in England, and elsewhere, in circum- 

 stances which preclude the probability of their mixture by 

 interments or other modern causes. 



2. The finding of flint implements associated with bones 

 of extinct animals in the valley of the Somme, and elsewhere. 



3. A supposed sepulchral cave of this period discovered 

 in the south of France. In addition to these there are many 

 minor facts tending to the same conclusion, but with less 

 distinctness. 



It is impossible to give extracts which will convey any 

 adequate idea of the facts adduced from the above sources, 

 but the following paragraphs may serve as examples of 

 some of them. They relate to evidence that man was con- 

 temporary with extinct animals, afforded by caverns near 

 Liege, explored by Dr Schmerling, and to the similar evi- 

 dence obtained in the cave of Brixham in England. 



" The rock in w^hich the Liege caverns occur belongs 

 generally to the Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone, in 

 some few cases only to the older Devonian formation. 

 Whenever the work of destruction has not gone too far, 

 magnificent sections, sometimes 200 and 300 feet in height, 

 are exposed to view. They confirm Schmerling's doctrine, 

 that most of the materials, organic and inorganic, now filling 

 the caverns, have been washed into them through narrow 

 vertical or oblique fissures, the upper extremities of which 

 are choked up with soil and gravel, and would scarcely 

 ever be discoverable at the surface, especially in so wooded 



