THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



85 



It is during the Tertiary period the first traces of mammalia are met 

 with. Apparently, it was not until towards the middle of that period 

 the mammalia attained their full development, although remains have 

 been found so remote as the Eocene period. 



Very little can, however, be ascertained as to what the qualities 

 possessed by the manufacturer or shaper of the Thenay flints were, and 

 we are unable to form an accurate estimate of that being which 

 wandered abroad during this early period. " Tertiary man,*' says the 

 learned Quatrefages in his "Human Species," "is known to us only 

 from the faint traces of his industry. Of himself, however, we know 

 little or nothing." 



Portions of skeletons have at different times been discovered in 

 France, Switzerland, and especially Italy, and these are supposed by 

 anthropologists to belong to early man, but this supposition, however, 

 has nothing tangible in favour of a Tertiary man. Hackel, a great 

 anatomist, based his theory on anatomical comparison of remains 

 found so remote as the middle Eocene, and some enthusiasts ground 

 their arguments on a comparative examination of the remains of a 

 species of fossil ape — Mesopithccus Pentelici — which have been found 

 somewhat numerously in the deposits belonging to the latter portion of 

 the Miocene age. 



There does not, however, appear to be any special interest attached 

 to the flints from Thenay, for on first inspection they look as though 

 split by the aid of fire and accidental flaking. Gaudry, who is an 

 authority on matters relating to early man, when treating on the 

 Tertiary mammalia, considers the Thenay flints to be nothing more 

 than the stones which were used by the Dryoftithecus, and which had 

 been so broken for convenient handling. This theory of Gaudry's is 

 more fully treated on in his work, " Links in the Animal Creation 

 during Geological Times," wherein he produces much which is 

 interesting and worthy of consideration, and which must be materially 

 weighed before assuming any final position as regards the existence or 

 otherwise of our Tertiary ancestors. 



Now, there is no evidence which is available against the theory that 

 these flints were the production of the Dryopitkecus, but although this 

 precursor of man is considered to be a great anthropomorphous ape, it 

 is on the examination only of a very few remains the assertion is 

 grounded, and since from experience it has been shown that during 

 the quaternary period evidences of the human race were discovered, 

 which showed very simian characteristics, so also may these scant 

 remains, which for more convincing evidence have been considered as 

 apish, have belonged to a being of almost equal intelligence to our- 

 selves. It must not be forgotten that this theory of an anthropo- 

 morphous ape finds itself solely established on the examination of very 



