49 
REMARKS. 
Rev. S. Lucas, F.Gr.S. — Notwithstanding the disclaimer of Dr. Carpenter, 
which I fully accept for himself, and for such distinguished scientists as the 
late Dr. Buckland, Sir R. I. Murchison, and geologists of their class, there is 
among many I could name, not only a bias, but what amounts, in appearance 
at least, to a determination to uphold and push back man’s enormous anti- 
quity on most feeble and limited grounds ;* to rest it on a few and often ques~ 
* Upon this point, Dr. Dawson, E.R.S., in his work Acadia , says 
“ In a region whose history extends backward scarce three hundred years, 
prehistoric times may seem to have little interest, in so far as the human 
period is concerned. Yet I think that something may be learned at a time 
when prehistoric human remains are exciting so much attention in the old 
world, by referring to the more recent 4 Stone age’ of Acadia. Those who 
speculate as to the antiquity of man, and the ages of Stone, Bronze, and 
Iron in Europe, and who, looking back on the earlier of these periods through 
the mists of centuries, attach to it a fabulous antiquity, may derive some 
lessons from a country in which the Stone age existed three hundred years 
ago, and has yet passed away as completely as though it had never been. 
The Micmac still pitches his rude wigwam of birch bark within sight of the 
largest cities of Acadia ; but he has entered into the Iron age, and the stone 
weapons of his ancestors are as much objects of curiosity to him as to his 
neighbours of European origin. * * * * . * 
“ Such was the Stone age of three centuries ago in Acadia ; and it is in- 
structive to bear in mind that in a country in the latitude of France, this 
was not o nl y the Stone age, but also the age of the caribou or reindeer, and 
moose and beaver— animals now verging towards extinction, and of no more 
importance to the present inhabitants than the park deer are to those of 
the old world. With the exception of a few of the forest-clad, hilly districts, 
Nova Scotia is now as unsuitable to the existence of the reindeer and 
moose as France is, and yet three centuries ago these animals were the chief 
food of its inhabitants. No material change of climate has occurred, but 
the Iron age has introduced a new race, and the forests have been cleared 
away. * ^ 
“ The monuments of the Stone age are few. Piles of shells of oysters and 
other mollusks, in some parts of the coast, mark the site of former summer 
encampments. Numerous stone implements are found on some old battle- 
grounds or cemeteries, or on the sites of villages ; and occasional specimens 
are turned up by the plough. But this is nearly all ; and if the written 
record of the discovery amd colonization of the country did not prevent, we 
might, in so far as the monumental history is concerned, believe the close of 
the Stone age to have belonged to a remote antiquity. If the Micmacs had 
been replaced by a semi-barbarous race, not keeping written records and 
destroying the aborigines, or incorporating them with themselves, the date 
of the Stone age would already be altogether uncertain. # 
11 On the whole, nothing can be more striking to any one acquainted with 
the American Indian, than the entire similarity of the traces of prehistoric 
m a n in Europe, to those which remain of the primitive condition of the 
American aborigines, whether we consider their food, their implements 
and weapons, or their modes of sepulture ; and it seems evident that 11 
these prehistoric remains are ever to be correctly interpreted by European 
VOL. VIII. E 
