254 
of external influences) than the greater or less rapidity of increase 
of the fluvial alluviums, such as are the deposits of the Quaternary 
epoch. And, moreover, the facts of this epoch, or of the anterior 
times, cannot be measured by the same scale as those of the actual 
period, for their causes had then dimensions which they have no 
longer. Thus, the calculations made in reference to the progress 
of an alluvium, supposed always equal and regular — or, according 
to other data equally uncertain, which philosophers of too lively an 
imagination have attempted to make, to establish the time which 
has elapsed between the interment of the most ancient vestiges of 
fossil man and our era — are, in reality, nothing but hypotheses 
without a base, and capricious fantasies. The date of the appear- 
ance of the human species, according to geology, is still unknown , 
and will probably always remain so.” 
44. I do not attach much credence to the evidence, falling 
chiefly under our Jirst category, which M. l’Abbe Bourgeois thinks 
that he has discovered of the workmanship of man in the Miocene 
age. The supposed fossil man of the inferior Pliocene has also 
been put on the shelf, being unable to stand his ground against the 
criticisms of M. Hamy. There ensues, in the order of geological 
phenomena, the first Glacial period, during which there exists no 
trace of man or of his works. After this, in the era of the Upper 
Pliocene, the temperature of Europe became, it is supposed, very 
much such as it is now. It is presumed that at this period England 
was united to France, and Spain and Sicily joined Africa ; that a 
free migration of animals could thus take place from the north and 
from the south, and that man also arrived in these countries with 
them. The proofs of this do not appear very sufficient, especially 
when taken in connection with the immense changes supposed to have 
ushered in the Quaternary period, during which the traces of 
human workmanship become evident and abundant. It is of the 
men of this period that we have been hitherto speaking ; but we 
must pass on to a short review of the succeeding “ Neolithic age,” 
or age of weapons of polished stone. No great changes or vast 
catastrophes are supposed to have intervened between the above age 
and the present, which indeed by some is considered a continuation 
of the Quaternary period. M. Be Rossi stated, as his opinion* 
that the last phase of the Quaternary state of the Tiber coincides 
with the first periods of the Roman history.*]* 
45. Whatever may be the state of the case, there came a time 
when the small-handed men of whom we have been speaking 
followed (as it is surmised) the reindeer in his retirement to more 
* At the Congress of Boulogne. — See Chahas, An. Hist., p. 559. 
f See Appendix (E). 
