nts prove that Miocene
man lived in France, unless indeed we refuse to believe that they are
artificial.

It also seems to us that those who hold to the view that man was living
in other parts of the world, as Asia, during the Miocene Age, ought
readily to admit that a few wandering bands might penetrate into
Europe.<50> The climate was tropical, there was an abundance of animal
life, and, if man was living anywhere, it is very reasonable to suppose
that, at some epoch during the course of the Miocene Age, he would have
found his way to Europe, unless shut off by the sea. It therefore
seems to us that the presence of those cut flints is conclusive of the
presence of man in Europe during the Miocene Age. At the same time we
can not affirm that this is the conclusion of the scientific world. They
seem to have heeded the remark of Quatrefages, that "in such a matter
there is no great urgency," and are waiting for further discoveries.

Thus far in our review we have noticed the steady progress in the forms
of life. In the Miocene Age we have seen all the types of life below man
present, and some indications of the presence of man himself. We must
now learn what we can of the Pliocene Age, the last division of the
Tertiary Age.

The Pliocene Age need not detain us long. Considerable changes in the
geography of both Europe and America were going forward during the
Miocene Age, and the result was quite a change in climate. There was
a steady elevation of the Pacific coast region of America, and, as a
consequences a period of great volcanic outbursts in California and
Oregon.<51> At the same time the bridge connecting Asia and America was
severed.<52> In Europe the Mediterranean area was elevated; but the land
connecting Greenland with Europe sank, allowing the cold waters of the
Arctic to communicate with both the North Sea and the Atlantic--England
at that time forming part of the great peninsula extending north and
west from Europe.<53> The climate during the Pliocene Age was cooler
than that of the Miocene. This is marked in the vegetation of that
period. The palms and the cinnamon trees, which in Miocene times grew in
Germany, flourished no farther north than Italy during the Pliocene.<54>

Count DeSaporta, who made special researches in the flora of this
period, found the remains of a forest growth buried under lava on the
side of a mountain in Cantal France, at an elevation of about four
thousand feet above the level