GEOLOGICAL TOPICS. 
373 
Low it could be done by a current of water, liowcvcr powerful it may be 
su])]K)scd. A torrent overthrows but docs not pile up. 
" One sees, tlien, torn oil' at their base by the weif^-ht of snow, these rocks 
precipitated from the mountains in their icy envelope, launched afterwards 
into tiie sea by the waves and torrents or by their own impulsion, driven by 
the wiuds and currents from ocean to ocean, just as the polar icebergs still 
are. These have been carried towards the coasts, and afterwards by the 
irruptions or conflux of the seas thrown over the interiors of the lauds. There, 
when their icy vehicle has disappeared, they were dropped on the soil where we see 
them at this hour, demanding of us why they are there when no other analogous 
production shows itself either in the vicinity or even in the same region. 
" If we admit the carriage of these granite-blocks and others by ice, there is 
still greater reason for recognizing the possibility that the smaller bodies, 
bones, and debris belonged originally perhaps to latitudes very remote. 
Although we can not concur in the very speculative A'iew set forth in it, 
nevertheless, M. Boucher de Perthes' third chapter " on the affinities of form 
and use of the stones called ' celts' of all epochs and of all countries," is one 
of considerable interest. Here he justly observes that what has mainly 
prevented their study beuig seriously taken up has been the want of books 
upon the subject. " If some ancient authors," he says, " have spoken of them, 
it is incidentally, and without attaching any great importance to their origin, 
or saying a word about the circumstances of their discovery, or the place 
whence they have come. lu none of the States of Europe, except Denmark 
and Sweden, have I seen any collection of them which deserves that title. The 
objects exposed in our museums without any certificates of their origin, may 
contribute to the ornament of a gallery, but not to the progress of science. 
Isolated thus, they tell us nothing of the history of men, nor of their first 
steps upon the earth. 
" I have endeavoured to avoid this reproach of isolation or doubtful origin by 
not admitting as typical a single fragment of which the circumstances were not 
perfectly reliable, and which was not accompanied by a sample of the earth 
whence it came. 
" That which strikes us at once in these thousands of worked flints from all 
parts of the world is their general likeness. Gathered from the turf-pits of 
the Somme or the marshes of Sweden, Denmark, or Greenland, they resemble 
each other so much that one would think they were nuide by the same work- 
men. Moreover, between these productions of the north and south, between 
these industrial essays of nations separated by the seas, there is a striking 
resemblance, which becomes more apparent as the objects are larger and 
simpler. 
" When one reflects upon it, this does not differ from that which daily passes 
under our eyes. Children in every country have the same delights and the 
same desires — hence even the same playthings. If they have not got them, 
they invent them and make them. 
'' Thus, too, the primitive peoples — those great children of Nature — have 
acted : all had the same weapons because they had the same passions. Every- 
where alike is it that with a club, a stake, or a sharpened stone, men have 
begun to kill each other when they have thought that their hands were not 
sufficient. 
"Everywhere, too, similar wants have necessitated similar tools and utensils. 
Knives, vases, combs, spades, bows, arrows, fish-hooks, have been simultaneously 
invented by peoples without communication with each other. 
" Not only have these races had need of arms, household goods, and tools, but 
they requii-ed also finery, idols, amulets, talismans, and ornaments, and lastly, com- 
memorative signs, which, substituted for word and gcstiu'e, took the place of 
