EE VIEWS. 
493 
“No bones of men have up to the present time been found in the strata 
containing the flint implements. This, though it has appeared to some so in- 
explicable as to throw a doubt on the whole question, is on consideration 
less extraordinary than it might at first sight appear to be. If, for instance, 
we turn to other remains of human settlements, we shall find a repetition of 
the same phenomenon. Thus, in the Danish refuse heaps, where worked 
flints are a thousand times more plentiful than in the St. Acheul gravel, 
human bones are of the greatest rarity. At this period, as in the Drift age, 
mankind lived by hunting and fishing, and could not, therefore, be very 
numerous. ... So far as the drift of St. Acheul is concerned, the difficulty 
will altogether disappear if we remember that no trace has ever yet been found 
of any animal as small as man. . . . When we find the remains of the 
wolf, boar, roe-deer, badger, and other animals which existed during the 
drift period, then, and not till then, we may perhaps begin to wonder at the 
entire absence of human skeletons.” 
Mr. Lubbock is a firm believer in Darwinism, and consequently he believes 
that early mankind must have been animals whose habits approached very 
closely those of the monkeys. The simpler arts and implements have, 
according to him, been invented independently by each race, and are but slight 
indications of advance upon the intelligence possessed by the Quadramana. 
“ Even at the present day we may, I think, obtain glimpses of the manner 
in which they were or may have been invented. Some monkeys are said to 
use clubs, and to throw sticks and stones at those who intrude upon them.. 
We know that they use round stones for cracking nuts, and surely a very 
small step would lead from that to the application of a sharp stone for cutting. 
When the edge became blunt it would be thrown away and another chosen ; 
but after a while accident, if not reflection, would show that a round stone 
would crack other stones as well as nuts, and thus the savage would learn to 
make sharp-edged stones for himself. At first, as we see m the drift speci- 
mens, these would be coarse and rough, but gradually the pieces chipped off 
would become smaller, the blows would be more cautiously and thoughtfully 
given, and at length it would be found that better work could be done by 
pressure than by blows. From pressure to polishing would again be but a 
small step. In making flint instruments sparks would be produced ; in 
polishing them it would not fail to be observed that they became hot, and in 
this way it is easy to see how the two methods of obtaining fire may have 
originated.” 
Short as is the foregoing paragraph, it contains a vividly coloured picture 
of the possible habits of primitive man, and it is not too much to say of it 
that it is as plausible as it is clearly the result of matured thought and philo- 
sophic induction. It gives, too, better than any other quotation w;e could 
have selected, an idea of Mr. Lubbock’s pleasing style of diction, and of the 
interesting character of his book. The volume is well and profusely illus- 
trated, and will amply repay those who peruse it. 
