432 
TIIIO GKOI,()OIST. 
GEOLOGICAL TOPICS. 
THE FIRST TRACES OF MAN ON THE EARTH. 
" There are stranger things" wrote old Aubrey, " than a man sees in a jour- 
ney bet ween Staines and Windsor." Doubtless there are, and not tlie least 
strange in modern times is the discovery of the works of men's hands in asso- 
ciation with tiie bones of mamuiotlis and other extinet tcrrestri;d beasts, 
whieii have always hitherto been supi)osed to have passed away before tlie 
" lord of all he surveys" made his appearance. For years it lias been the 
praet ice 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- 
staut iated, so that, in its general weakness and unreliableness there is some 
iustilication of the practice. An energetic French antiquary, however, has 
brought tlie matter so prominently forward, and substantiated his assertions by 
discoveries and proofs iit once so novel and so convincing, that geologists and 
anticpiaries were both alike, compelled to investigate the matter, and neither 
have hesitated to accept the proofs afforded. 
We cannot, therefore, do better than first bring before the reader the 
labours and ojiiuions of tiiis gentleman before we cuter into the consideration 
of the knowledge aec[uiied smee their publication, or review the mass of im- 
perfect materials whicli had previously oeen accumulated. 
Twelve years have now elapsed since M. Boucher dc Perthes, the weU- 
known antiquary of Abbeville, published the first volume of his memoir, 
" Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes." on the primitive works of human 
art, and gave expression to his idea that some of those he had discovered 
behmgcd 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 well ex- 
pressed in the preface of the part given to the world in 1857. Without doubt 
the work in questiini really was, as we are there told, the fruit of long re- 
searclres 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, 
&e., of wliich before him no one had any idea. If these curious discoveries ex- 
tended the limits of our history, they did not mcrease 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 rccentness of origin of our race to which we cUng so tightly, 
aroused many prejudices and wounded even more than one susceptibility. 
Tiiis part of the book was condemned before it was read. In vain did the 
author olfer proof of Hints bearing the traces of human handling, discovered by 
liimself m the diluvhim. In vain his book gave pictures of them, and in vain 
was 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 French geologists and antiquaries spoke not the less against tlie 
work ; and except some of liis personal fiiends no one would verify the facts, 
giving as the reason that they were impossible. 
M. do Perthes, however, did wjiat other great men have done before hii^ 
and what others wiU do again and as-.-iin after him. He set to work to aeeu- 
