been, and are still taking place in many parts of the world — e.g., the coasts 
of Scandinavia, Greenland, Cutcb, South America, Pozzuoli, &c.'* 
“Will the geologist declare with perfect composure that the earth has at 
length settled into a state of repose? Will he continue to assert that the 
changes of relative level of laud and sea, so common in former ages of the 
world, have now ceased? If, in the fape of so many striking facts, he 
persists in maintaining this favourite dogma, it is in vain to hope that, by 
accumulating the proofs of similar convulsions during a series of antecedent 
ages, we shall shake his tenacity of purpose :f — 
‘ Si fraetus illabatur orbis, 
Impavidum ferient ruinae.’” — Ilor., lib. iii., ode iii. 
(2.) It ignores altogether the w T orld-wide tradition of a recent great Deluge. 
Even if this were not universal, the forces which produced such a great 
catastrophe would probably more or less affect the levels of many distant 
parts of the earth’s surface. 
(3.) It is assumed that flint flakes and implements are necessarily the work 
of man. 
(4.) Allowing them to be the work of man, are they of necessity contem- 
poraneous with the gravel-beds in which they are sometimes found P How is it 
the bones of man are “ conspicuous by their absence” ? Did primaeval man 
never die ? Have these beds never been visited in subsequent ages for their 
rich stores of flint ? What has become of the immense number of clappings 
of “the great gun-flint period”? Have any of them found their way into the 
museums of collectors amongst “undoubted relics of the great antiquity of 
man ” ? The notorious “ fossil jaw ” of Amiens reminds us that great men 
are not infallible, and that a gravel-bed may be disturbed without its being 
suspected. 
REMARKS BY PROEESSOR W. BOYD DAWKINS, E.R.S. 
I entirely hold with Professor Hughes in the view which he takes relating 
to the antiquity of man, and the necessity of looking narrowly into facts 
* The following remarks by Professor Huxley, made (August 22, 1S79) at 
the meeting of the British Association, are interesting: — “The question 
as to the exact time to be attached to alluvial remains in the Somme 
valley cannot be settled satisfactorily. Pew persons except men of 
science are aware that there have been enormous changes during the last 
500 years in the north of Europe. The volcanoes of Iceland have been 
continually active, great floods of lava had been poured forth, and the 
level of the coast bad been most remarkably changed. Similar causes might 
have produced enormous changes in the valley of the Sotmne, and there- 
fore any arguments based as to time upon the appearances of the valley 
were not to be trusted.” — El). 
t C. Lycll, Principles of Geology, Sth edition, p. 450. 
