66 
hippopotamus, giant deer, and other extinct animals, by 
Dr. Falconer, who has also lately observed a similar deposit 
of flint and agate knives with extinct animals in the Grotta 
di Maccagnone, near Palermo ; and more especially Mr. 
Prestwich's communication to the Poyal Society,* of the 
occurrence of several hundreds of flint axes and arrow-heads, 
in undisturbed gravel, with bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, 
hippopotamus, &c, at Abbeville, and Amiens, in the north of 
France, which has been corroborated by Sir Charles Lyell, 
who, in his eloquent address to the British Association at 
Aberdeen, observes : — " No subject has lately excited more 
" curiosity and general interest among geologists and the 
" public, than the question of the antiquity of the human 
" race : whether or no we have sufficient evidence to prove 
" the former co-existence of Man with certain extinct 
" mammalia in caves, or in the superficial deposits commonly 
" called drift or ' diluvium ? ' For the last quarter of a century 
" the occasional occurrence in various parts of Europe of the 
" bones of man, or the works of his hands, in cave breccias 
" and stalactites, associated with the remains of the extinct 
" hyoena, bear, elephant, or rhinoceros, have given rise to a 
" suspicion that the date of man must be carried further back 
" than we had heretofore imagined. On the other hand, 
" extreme reluctance was naturally felt on the part of 
" scientific reasoners, to admit the validity of such evidence, 
" seeing that so many caves have been inhabited by a 
" succession of tenants, and have been selected by man as a 
" place, not only of domicile, but of sepulture ; while some 
" caves have also served as the channels through which the 
" waters of flooded rivers have flowed, so that the remains of 
" living beings which have peopled the district at more than 
" one era, may have subsequently been mingled in such 
" caverns, and confounded together in one and the same 
• See Annals of Natural History, September. 1850, p. 230. 
