ts that we must relegate the origin of man to a much
more remote antiquity than that sanctioned by history or by the
Biblical chronology. I shall first review the character of this
evidence, and then state a number of geological facts which bear in
the other direction, and have been somewhat lost sight of in recent
discussions. Of the facts above referred to, the most important are
those which relate to caverns, peat-bogs, and river-gravels. We may,
therefore, first consider the nature and amount of this evidence.

That the reader may more distinctly understand the geological history
of these more recent periods of the earth's history which are supposed
to have witnessed the advent of man, in Western Europe at least, I
quote the following summary from Sir Charles Lyell of the more modern
changes in that portion of the world. These are:

"First, a continental period, toward the close of which the forest of
Cromer flourished; when the land was at least 500 feet above its
present level, perhaps much higher. * * * The remains of _Hippopotamus
major_ and _Rhinoceros etruscus_, found in beds of this period, seem
to indicate a climate somewhat milder than that now prevailing in
Great Britain. [This was a _Preglacial_ era, and may be regarded as
belonging to the close of the Pliocene tertiary.]

"Secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of the
Thames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was generally reduced
to * * * an archipelago. * * * This was the period of great
submergence and of floating ice, when the Scandinavian flora, which
occupied the lower grounds during the first continental period, may
have obtained exclusive possession of the only lands not covered with
perpetual snow. [This represents the Glacial period; but according to
the more extreme glacialists only a portion of that period.]

"Thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial
sea, with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and when
the quantity of land equalled that of the first period. * * * During
this period there were glaciers in the higher mountains of Scotland
and Wales, and the Welsh glaciers * * * pushed before them and cleared
out the marine drift with which some valleys had been filled during
the period of submergence. * * * During this last period the passage
of the Germanic flora into the British area took place, and the
Scandinavian plants, together with northern insects, birds, and
qua