REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, PRIMEVAL MAN IN BELGIUM. 47 
animals, which is found in our cave and other Pleistocene deposits, 
is most easily accounted for ; and this commingling we must note 
is that of animals which once lived together on the spot, not one 
brought about by a flood sweeping together the bones of animals 
which had no mutual connection. 
At the same time we may allow that the great depression of the 
northern area at the close of the Pleistocene Age which brought 
about, amongst other results, the separation of our islands from the 
continent, may have been accompanied by a more or less sudden 
submergence of part of the area, and the evidences of this which 
were so ably set before us by Sir Joseph Prestwich cannot be lightly 
passed over. 
Professor Orchard, M.A., B.Sc. — I have much pleasure in 
supporting — we all support — the vote of thanks which has been 
moved and seconded to the learned author of this valuable paper. 
It is a paper which supplies several illustrations of the great 
principle that there are no collisions between truth, that the facts of 
science — though not necessarily the speculations of scientists — are 
always in harmony with the statements of God’s Word, the Bible. 
I have been struck, in reading the paper, with the carefulness of 
the investigation and with the general ability of the reasoning. 
Some years ago we were told, by people who ought to have 
known better,* that our primitive ancestors were ignorant savages, 
themselves the offspring of certain ape-like forms whose habitual 
and congenial occupation was to crack nuts and run up a tree. He 
would be a bold man who, in view of the discoveries brought before 
us, ventured to maintain that theory now. We shall agree with the 
author that we cannot “ for a moment believe that the men who 
possessed such splendid skulls and such large brains ; who dressed 
in cloth and carefully-prepared skins ; who adorned themselves with 
paint, necklaces and ornaments, and who reverently buried their 
dead in the belief of a life beyond the grave, were brutal and 
degraded savages. The idea is impossible.” The supposed savage 
or barbarian turns out to be an ancestor of high respectability. He 
is not a warrior only, but also a huntsman, and a sailor. He is 
an artisan, a fisherman, and a trader. He concerns himself with 
* It would seem as though, in this case, the sense of self-importance 
had curiously inverted the sense of filial respect. 
