M. GBAS' ATTACK OS THE FLI^'T-IiIPLEME^-TS. 



2S9 



ceremony, in such relationship notwithstandiug ever stood the union 

 of human beings. The man would mourn for the loss of his help- 

 mate. Death to human beings would always have had a different 

 aspect to what death has to the beast. In the human heart there 

 would be the innate desire to Jay the lifeless corpse or its ashes icliere 

 its resting-place could be visited. If the flint-implement men were 

 himan, such must have been, even in the first of this pristine race, 

 the feelings which death would evoke ; and if such the feelings, 

 burials or hurnings must have disposed of the mass of that primitive 

 race. If burials, we must look elsewhere than to the debris of 

 floods or the alluvia of river-beds for human bones. 



AVe may search for a later but still early race near where the great 

 monoliths and the gigantic stones of so-called Druids' temples exhibit 

 their weather-beaten forms ; but if cremation were practised, then 

 for all traces of the flint-implement makers, other than their works, 

 we must trust to chance alone. 



The massive bones of the great beasts could not escape the eye ; 

 the teeth and skulls of smaller animals would at once attract atten- 

 tion ; but what notice would a few fragments of calcined bones 

 amongst the debris and broken fragments obtain ? 



^"hat explorer of caves, what digger in gravel-pits, has searched 

 over the heaps of bone-bits always thrown aside as waste ? In this 

 respect we have followed the common way ; but we are not without 

 suspicion that more than once we have missed our chance. 



5. That ivorhed flints, similar to those claimed as diluvial, have heen 

 found in such a position that it has heen necessary to attribute to them 

 a modern origin. — Xo instances are stated by M. Gras ; we cannot, 

 therefore, refute any cases to which he alludes by statements of the 

 facts. Besides which, if such specimens exist under such circum- 

 stances, they may be forgeries ; or they may be relics — and this is 

 not at all unlikely — preserved by more modern tribes. "We know 

 that the savage races of the present day do sometimes treasure the 

 weapons of their ancestors ; and there are many other ways in which 

 such occurrences may be explained when the actual circumstances 

 are given. 



6. That M. Toillez' axes have been collected at the surface of the 

 soil. — This is put as a " poser " by M. Grras ; but strong as he 

 thinks it, it goes down at once before a simple question. It is 

 slaughtered by a breath. Do we not find ordinary gravel-fLmt^ in 

 myriads on the surface of the soil ? Can you go through any field, 



TOL. Y. 2 P 



