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. jMackie commented m 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 mdicated, 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, m 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-Diluviiunformednot 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 ^A ould 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 known as the stone-age, and the antiquity of which docs not go 
further 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. 
