42 REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, PRIMEVAL MAN IN BELGIUM. 
Discussion. 
The Secretary (Professor Hull, F.R.S.), in moving a vote of 
thanks to the author for his important and interesting paper, said : 
I shall confine my remarks to the physical aspects of the subject. 
The period in the world’s history to which the paper referred was 
perhaps the most critical and far-reaching of the great periods in 
geological history, as to it is referred the first appearance of Man. 
It did not follow that because Man, as represented by his works and 
remains, first appeared in the Pleistocene gravel beds and caves of 
Belgium, that he had not been long before an inhabitant of some 
other part of the world, probably in the Euphrates Valley or that of 
the Nile ; but his appearance in Belgium and Western Europe was 
strictly defined as subsequent to the close of the Glacial Epoch. 
The earliest of the deposits described by Mr. Whitley was probably 
“ the Loess ” or glacial mud, formed by the melting of the vast 
deposits of snow and ice of the Glacial Period from off the Alps. 
These deposits, which partially line the Rhine Valley, contain no 
human remains, though bones of hippopotamus occur. The climate, 
which had been Arctic in character during the Glacial Period, was now 
becoming warmer owing to the gradual lowering of the land from its 
preceding high elevation ; in fact, “ the Pluvial Period ” had set in, 
and rivers took the place of glacier ice ; and as the land, in the 
succeeding epoch, gradually rose by successive stages, the deposits 
of river gravel were formed on the flanks of the valleys. It was 
now that Man seems to have appeared, and with him the animals 
of the Quaternary Period, so graphically described by the author. 
The caves in the Carboniferous and Devonian limestones of 
Belgium were in all probability formed by subterranean rivers 
during (in part) the Pluvial Period. As the land rose, they became 
dry, the waters having either dried up, or found other channels, 
and thus became the abode of primeval men, or of the cave lion and 
hyaena. The Pluvial Period was of long duration, and is largely 
accountable for the flooding of the plains and low-lands of Western 
Europe. The geological phenomena of Belgium are represented in 
England, except that we have no representation of the Loess ; but I 
