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THE GEOLOGlSTo 



GEOLOGICAL TOPICS. 

 THE riRST TRACES OP MAN ON THE EARTH. 



"There are stranger things" wrote old Aubrey^ " than a man sees in a jour- 

 ney between Staines and Windsor." Doubtless there are, and not the least 

 strange in modern times is the discovery of the works of men's hands in asso- 

 ciation with the bones of mannnoths and other extinct terrestrial beasts, 

 Avhich have always hitherto been supposed to have passed away before the 

 ''lord of all he surveys" made his appearance. Eor years it has been the 

 practice of geologists to ignore any asserted evidence of human remains in the 

 same strata with those of the great extinct mammalia, and certainly, generally 

 speaking, the evidence offered was carelessly got, or only very imperfectly sub- 

 stantiated, so that, in its general weakness and unreliableness there is some 

 justification of the practice. An energetic Erench antiquary, however, has 

 'brouglit the matter so prominently forward, and substantiated his assertions by 

 discoveries and proofs at once so novel and so convincing, that geologists and 

 antiquaries were both alike compelled to investigate the matter, and neither 

 have hesitated to accept the proofs afforded. 



We camiot, therefore, do better than first bring before the reader the 

 labours and opinions of this gentleman before we enter into the consideration 

 of the knowledge acquired since their publication, or review the mass of im- 

 perfect materials which had previously been accumulated. 



Twelve years have now elapsed since M. Boucher de Perthes, the well- 

 known antiquary of Abbeville, published the first volume of his memoir, 

 " Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes." on the primitive works of lium.an 

 art, and gave expression to his idea that some of those he had discovered 

 belonged to a geological age. The reception that first portion his book met 

 with at the hands of scientific men, as well as by the public at large, is weU. ex- 

 pressed in the preface of the part given to the v/orld in 1857. Without doubt 

 the work in question really was, as we are there told, the fruit of long re- 

 searches and conscientious study, and that all applauded witliout reserve every- 

 thing he had shown concerning the Celtic people, not only their arms and 

 their stone -tools, but their household utensils, their instruments of agriculture, 

 &c., of which before him no one had any idea. If these curious discoveries ex- 

 tended the limits of our history, they did not increase the antiquity of man. 

 To these remarks no one raised a single objection. But it was not thus with 

 the antediluvian antiquities ; this title alone, which put in doubt the whole 

 system of the recentness of origin of our race to which we cling so tightly, 

 aroused many prejudices and wounded even more than one susceptibility. 

 This part of the book was condemned before it was read. In vain did the 

 author offer proof of flints bearing the traces of human handling, discovered by 

 hiuisclf in the diluvium. In vam his book gave pictui-es of them, and in vain 

 \yas the vast gallery which the author had 'built to his house for their exhibi- 

 tion opened to those who wished to see the objects themselves. The great 

 majority of Erench geologists and antiquaries spoke not the less against the 

 work ; and except some of his personal friends no one would verify the facts, 

 giving as the reason that they were impossible. 



M. de Perthes, however, did what other great men have done before him, 

 and what others will do agaui and again after him. He set to work to accu- 



