ich have, in fact, been carved out of the earth's surface may
be known for water-work or for ice-work by their shape, and
that firths, dales, and lakes may mark the sites of local
glacial periods; and canyons the sites of climates that have not
been glacial since the streams began to flow."

THE OLDEST STONE TOOLS.

One of the problems which geologists now propose to themselves is to
ascertain definitely whether the existence of man before the close of
the glacial epoch can be certainly proved. The method of proof consists
in the examination of formations older than those of that epoch, in the
hope of finding in them bones or implements of human origin. Mr. S. B.
J. Skertchly thinks he has done this. In the valley sides around the
town of Brandon, in England, "are preserved patches of brick-earth,
which are valuable as affording the only workable clay in the district.
Whenever these beds are well exposed they are seen to underlie the
chalky boulder-clay of glacial age. Of this there cannot be the
slightest doubt, for the glacial bed is typically developed and not in
the slightest degree reconstructed. In these beds I have been so
fortunate as to find palaeolithic implements in two places; and in one of
them quantities of broken bones and a few fresh-water shells. The
implements are of the oval type, boldly chipped, but without any of the
finer work which distinguishes the better made palaeolithic implements.
Although it would be rash to lay too great a stress upon the characters
of these implements, it is nevertheless worthy of remark that they do
belong to the crudest type. Equally rough specimens are found in the
gravels above the boulder-clay, and even among neolithic finds. Still
these very antique implements certainly do seem to belong to an earlier
stage of civilization, if we regard them as examples of the best
workmanship of their makers." These, he thinks, are the oldest specimens
of man's handiwork known, and prove him to have lived before the
culmination of the glacial epoch.

ORIGIN OF THE SPANISH PEOPLE.

An anthropologist, M. Turbino, has written a paper on the relations of
the people who inhabit Spain and Portugal, from which it appears that
those civilized races present a heterogeneity that reminds us forcibly
of the condition in which the savage tribes of America were at the time
of the discovery, and indeed are still. There is found in the Spanish
races no unity of origin or