THE 



BRITISH NATURALIST. 



NEW SERIES, 



NOTES ON EARLY MAN: THE PLIOCENE PERIOD. 



BY JOSEPH SMITH, F.R.S.A., M.R.I. A. 



To what period in the great geological scale can we attribute the 

 first appearance of man on the globe is a consideration which has 

 engaged the attention, not only of geologists, but of all those who find 

 themselves interested in the progressiveness of the human species. It 

 is only from the interest the question has excited, and the attention it 

 has of late years centred on itself, that any advance has been made in 

 our knowledge thereon, but sufficient evidence has now accumulated to 

 enable, in a certain degree, a satisfactory solution of this great and 

 highly interesting social problem. 



When pursuing our inquiries it is impossible not to recognize the 

 valued assistance our Continental confreres, by their independent 

 researches, have brought to the evidence bearing on Early Man, and it 

 is rather through remains which have been unearthed from the great 

 caves and other localities in France, and the care with which the 

 various items of information have been stored, than otherwise, that 

 to-day we are able to throw any light on the great and ever-engaging 

 question, the " appearance of Early Man." 



So far back as the year 1864 Garigou considered he had in certain 

 excavations unearthed sufficient proof, to establish the co-existence of 



