Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/110

98 his hands, and it falls strictly within the province of the archæologist to judge whether given specimens were so wrought or not; it rests with the geologist to determine their stratigraphical or chronological position, while the paleontologist can pronounce upon the age and character of the associated fauna and flora. If left to himself the archæologist seems too prone to build up theories founded upon form alone, irrespective of geological conditions. The geologist, unaccustomed to archæological details, may readily fail to see the difference between the results of the operations of Nature and those of art, and may be liable to trace the effects of man's handiwork in the chipping, bruising, and wearing which in all ages result from natural forces; but the united labors of the two, checked by those of the paleontologist, can not do otherwise than lead toward sound conclusions.

It will perhaps be expected of me that I should on the present occasion bring under review the state of our present knowledge with regard to the antiquity of man; and probably no fitter place could be found for the discussion of such a topic than the adopted home of my venerated friend, the late Sir Daniel Wilson, who first introduced the word "prehistoric" into the English language. Some among us may be able to call to mind the excitement not only among men of science but among the general public when, in 1859, the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes and Dr. Rigollot in the gravels of the valley of the Somme, at Abbeville and Amiens, were confirmed by the investigations of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, myself, and others, and the co-existence of man with the extinct animals of the Quaternary fauna, such as the mammoth and woolly-haired rhinoceros, was first virtually established. It was at the same time pointed out that these relics belonged to a far earlier date than the ordinary stone weapons found upon the surface, which usually showed signs of grinding or polishing, and that, in fact, there were two stone ages in Britain. To these the terms "neolithic" and "palæolithic" were subsequently applied by Sir John Lubbock. The excitement was not less when, at the meeting of this association at Aberdeen in the autumn of that year, Sir Charles Lyell, in the presence of the Prince Consort, called attention to the discoveries in the valley of the Somme, the site of which he had himself visited, and to the vast lapse of time indicated by the position of the implements in drift deposits a hundred feet above the existing river. The conclusions forced upon those who examined the facts on the spot did not receive immediate acceptance by all who were interested in geology and archæology, and fierce were the controversies on the subject that were carried on both in the newspapers and before various learned societies. It is at the same time instructive and