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Early Traces of Man . 
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II. EARLY TRACES OF MAN.* 
By G. De Mortillet. 
t UATERNARY MAN. — The man of geological time — ■ 
fossil man — is now a faCt so clearly demonstrated 
that it is no longer called in question. The recent 
exposition of anthropological sciences showed us his works 
plentifully scattered throughout France, England, Spain, 
and Italy. 
But, though the existence of quaternary man in the south- 
west of Europe is no longer denied, there is a school which, 
walking with fear and hesitation in the path of progress, has 
its mind made up to contest his existence in the Orient. 
What the leaders of this school maintain is this : — In the 
East, say they, civilisation, and consequently historic records, 
date back to a very remote time. Is it not, then, possible 
that geological time still persisted in Europe, and especially 
in Western Europe, while in Egypt the historic dynasties 
were being founded ? 
To put forth such a proposition as this, one must be igno- 
rant of the data of geology. The remarkable collections 
exhibited at the Anthropological Exposition have shown that 
man was contemporary not only with the reindeer, the saiga, 
the chamois, and the marmot on our plains ; not only with 
the mammoth and the Rhinoceros tichorhinus , — that is, with 
the fauna of the Glacial period, but also with the great hip- 
popotamus, the Elephas primigenius, and the rhinoceros of 
Merk. All geologists are agreed that the duration of the 
period in which we live is as nothing compared with that of 
the Quaternary period. It is as a day compared to ages, as 
a drop of water in a stream. All palaeontologists understand 
what a length of time is requisite for the rise and decline of 
animal species — species which, while they have been upon 
the earth, have been lavishly distributed over an enormous 
area. 
But we have no need of the general data of geology and 
palaeontology in order to meet the objection. The Exposi- 
tion of the Anthropological Sciences furnished materials 
which reduce it to a nullity. There were exhibited perfectly 
charadterised quaternary instruments of silex from the East 
* Translated by J. Fitzgerald, A.M., from the Revue d’Anthropologie. 
