1894.1 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



115 



these the most significant was that of Whitney, who wrote to Desor 

 that he had " discovered unquestionable proof on the coast of the 

 Pacific Ocean of the existence of man anterior to the glacial epoch, and 

 the age of the mastodon and elephant, during a period when the flora 

 and fauna were entirely different to those of the present day." He 

 also favoured Bourgeois with a similar intimation, and some years 

 afterwards Whitney published an essay on the subject, the speculations 

 in which, proving the existence of man in these early times, were 

 freely endorsed by Desor. This essay was the means of directing a 

 more critical attention to Whitney's discovery, and when the surround- 

 ings were thoroughly investigated the remains were pronounced to be 

 recent, and those of an Esquimaux. Likewise an entire skeleton, 

 which was found at a depth of three feet in a deposit of the Lower 

 Pliocene period, and which remains were described by Issel, proved on 

 examination to be the skeleton of a Ligurian of a date much later than 

 the Pliocene age. We are not, therefore, at present able to pronounce 

 satisfactorily on remains of the Pliocene period. 



In the beds belonging to the latter part of this era bone fragments 

 have been found showing striae, or markings, but the circumstances of 

 the finds, and the fewness of the fragments themselves, did not enable 

 any satisfactory expression of opinion as to what the being was that 

 had produced these incised markings. 



Bourgeois, during the year 1866, was successful in discovering in the 

 St. Prest beds in France a series of worked flints, which are considered 

 as positive evidence of the existence of a human being. These flints 

 have been sorted and tabulated as follows : — 



Lance and arrow-heads, 



Piercers, 



Scrapers, 



Hammers, 



but Cartaillac seems to regard the origin of these flints as quite as 

 doubtful as the markings on the bone fragments above referred to. It 

 is generally accepted, however, that these flints do in no way offer any 

 particular difficulty, but were the industry of one of those races of men, 

 probably of that race traces of which have been met with in the early 

 quaternary deposits. Capellini, during the meeting of Anthropolo- 

 gists held in 1876 at Buda-Pesth, exhibited bones from the Pliocene 

 beds near Boulogne, which showed incised markings. These bones 

 were the ribs of a small fossil whale, and he considered the markings, 

 which are all on the convex side, to have been produced by man. 

 From their position and appearance it was assumed these markings 

 had been made with flint knives by those persons who had cut 

 away the flesh of the whale as it lay on its side, and many eminent 

 Italian naturalists, who have carefully examined the incised ribs, 



