THE ANTIQUITY OP HAN. 
455 
The preceding abstract of the most striking cave evidence 
has led eminent geologists to conclude, apparently with much 
reason, that man was contemporary with the mammoth, the 
cave-bear, the hyaena of dens, and several other extinct mam- 
malia. To avoid this inference npon geological grounds is 
certainly not easy, nor can we fairly expect stronger evidences 
than the above, for these are both individually satisfactory to 
competent geologists and also cumulative. Other geological 
conclusions are admitted as established upon similar evidence. 
So much has been said and published upon the famous flint 
implements of Picardy that it is unnecessary here to repeat 
details of their position and characteristics. The most cautious 
readers must be prepared to admit that equally cautious ob- 
servers have at least very fair grounds for believing these flint 
weapons to be genuine as to antiquity, and unquestionably 
indicative of human handiwork. We ourselves have examined 
many of them, at home and abroad, and it would be sheer 
obstinacy to deny that they have been shaped by men. There 
are several minute characteristics by which genuine antiques 
can be distinguished from modern impositions ; and no well- 
versed examiner can entertain doubts of the human markings 
in at least some hundreds of chipped flints extracted from the 
fluviatile gravels near Amiens and Abbeville. Dr. Falconer 
has recently shown to the writer two of the finest and most 
unquestionably worked flints from near Abbeville, which would 
carry conviction to the mind of any unprejudiced observer. 
That a human jaw has been lately found, in association with 
shaped flints, in the gravel-pits at Moulin-Quignon, near 
Abbeville, must be known to nearly all readers, as well as 
the fact that it has been the subject of much discussion 
and minute examination with respect to its genuineness and 
antiquity. A joint French and English commission of naturalists 
and geologists carefully and locally investigated the whole 
matter. Ilaches (or flint hatchets) were disengaged from the 
cliff of the gravel-pit at Moulin-Quignon in the sight of these 
gentlemen, and they were convinced of the actual occurrence 
of the jaw in the “ blackband ; ” but there was not the same 
unanimity about the age of the jaw itself. Dr. Falconer 
thought “ the finding of the jaw authentic; but that the cha- 
racters which it presents, taken in connection with the con- 
ditions under which it lay, are not consistent with the said 
jaw being of very great antiquity ; ” and Mr. Busk adds that 
“ there is no longer reason to doubt that the jaw was found 
in the situation and under the conditions reported by Mr. 
Boucher de Perthes ; nevertheless it appears (to Mr. Busk) 
that the internal condition of the bone is wholly irrecon- 
cilable with an antiquity equal to that assigned to the deposits 
