228 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



" In conclusion, we may readily observe in the lower jaws of individuals 

 of our own time differences as much, and more, marked than any of those 

 which distinguish the Abbeville jaw from many of the jaws in the Museum 

 collections. In other words, these differences, in every respect, are within 

 the limits of variation in existing races." 



At the opening meeting of the Anthropological Society, on the 22nd 

 February last, Mr. Mackie commented in strong terms on the evidence of 

 the geological human remains, pointing out that the Engis and other 

 oldest fossil skulls indicated a higher grade of man than one would expect 

 as a link of the human race with the gorilla ; and that, moreover, the geo- 

 logical evidence, truly put, showed primitive man as an intellectual, though 

 it might be as the flint-implements indicated, a very inexperienced and un- 

 tutored being ; whilst of the gorilla, which the transmutationists admit to 

 be man's nearest link with the brutes, not a single fragment had been 

 found. Stating, however, his belief in the unity of Creation, he said he 

 thought that if the link between man and the inferior animals were ever 

 traced, it would be found to be short and sudden — at most a thread-like 

 line of strongly variable descent, rather than a general gradual improve- 

 ment of any breed of apes, as is supposed by the Darwinian hypothesis of 

 a transmutation of species. 



It is to be regretted that the Society's report of this meeting, published 

 in the Anthropological Journal, does not record what he said, but, in a 

 short and incorrect paragraph, attributes words to him he never spoke. 



It is not a little singular that within a month the evidence from the 

 Abbeville gravels should add direct testimony to this opinion. 



At the sitting of the Paris Academy, on the 18th ultimo, M. Milne- 

 Edwards gave an account of the proceedings of the commission at Abbe- 

 ville. The ' Institut ' adds : " The jaw exhibited before the Academy, 

 the flint-implements which accompanied it, have been truly found in the 

 bed called diluvial, at Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville. We purposely 

 say, in the bed called diluvial, for although all controversy has ceased in 

 respect to the discovery, many geologists, at the head of whom is M. Elie 

 de Beaumont, contest the diluvial nature of the deposit in which the dis- 

 covery has been made. M. Elie de Beaumont declared in a very explicit 

 manner, after having heard the reports of M. Milne-Edwards and of M. 

 de Quatrefages, that according to his opinion the deposit at Moulin- 

 Quignon is not Diluvium but a deposit belonging to the formation which 

 he designated a long time ago as the ' terrain meuble des pentes,' that is, a 

 kind of Post-Dilu vium formed not by marine nor fluviatile alluvia, but by 

 simple weather-action, and much later, or posterior, to the alluvia known 

 by the term Diluvium. The human jaw, the object of .so much study, 

 would lose, then, in losing its antiquity, a great part of the importance 

 that it would have had if the deposit was indisputably recognized as being 

 diluvial ; for, according to M. Elie de Beaumont, it is a simple relic of the 

 period know n as the stone-age, and the antiquity of which does not go 

 farther back than 3000 or 4000 years." This idea, however, remains to be 

 proved ; or, at least, after Mr. Prestwich's account of the district, it is neces- 

 sary should have the geological evidence put before us before we accept 

 this conclusion. 



