194 
and incursions of the ocean even within the past few centuries. 
In fact, “ tradition tells us that in former ages the mount was 
part of the insular continent in Britain, and disjoined from it 
by an inundation or encroachment of the sea/'’ * so that at 
whatever age the subsidence began, it was not complete till 
the era of tradition. 
Mr. Pengelly’s calculations seem quite modest and reason- 
able compared with those of many other palaeontologists. The 
bone of a bear mistaken for the fibula of a human being gave 
rise to th efabala of the existence of man in Yorkshire during 
an immense period of years. f 
“ At the recent meeting in Dublin, it was stated that Pro- 
fessor Busk, who had brought his great experience to bear 
upon the subject, and who had provisionallyadmitted the human 
character of the bone, was now prepared to admit that it was 
more likely to be ursine than human; ” 
The os innominatum of some luckless wanderer lost in the 
swamps of the delta of the Mississippi, and resuscitated by Dr. 
Dickeson, of Natchez, led Sir Charles Lyell to speak of the 
possibility of North America having been peopled more than 
a thousand centuries ago by the human race. 
Such are the materials out of which Palaeontological science 
blows these gigantic bubbles of history. 
It never seems to occur to our “ scientists ” that it is 
needful to fill up these enormous lapses of time by some 
reasonable details ; or to run the risk of their being rejected 
as utterly incredible. 
For instance, it is the evident law of existence, both of 
mammoths and of men, that they should increase and mul- 
tiply, though the latter at a much quicker rate than the former. 
Suppose a single pair of each placed upon the earth a 
thousand centuries ago, and allowed to multiply at the lowest 
rate of increase ; and instead of bones and tusks being found 
in abundance in some places only, they would fill the soil 
everywhere. As to man, we should not be able to find a 
rood of ground without a skeleton in it, and instead of the 
caves and ancient sepultures presenting a fewj; doubtful “Ne- 
anderthal’' skulls, the crania . of Palaeolithic men would have 
supplied inexhaustible stores of material for our manufacturers 
of artificial manure. 
Of still greater importance is tho consideration that man is 
an improving creature, capable, at tho very earliest age (j,.t 
* Antiquity of Man, p. 24. 
f The, Nineteenth Century, October 1878, p. 772. 
J See B. Dawkins, Cave-hunting, pp. 240-242. 
