ery was found lying on the surface, and was never for
a moment imagined by him as belonging to the same age as the cut
bones.<72> There is also the objection, that, inasmuch as all the
mammals then alive except one have perished, it is more than likely
that, had man been in existence then, he too would have disappeared.

We considered this point fully when speculating as to the presence
of man in the Miocene: so we have nothing further to offer. We might,
however, suggest that, if the hippopotamus amongst mammals could survive
all the changing time since the Pliocene, as it has done, it seems no
more than fair to admit equal power of endurance to the human species.
The position then of the scientific world as to the Pliocene Age of man
is, on the whole, more decided in its favor than for the Miocene Age.
Quite a number of eminent scholars, whose conclusions are worthy of all
respect, unhesitatingly affirm the existence of Pliocene man in Europe.
Others are not quite ready to admit his existence in Europe, but do
think he was in existence elsewhere. Still others, with all due respect
for the discoveries of Capellini, think it more prudent to await further
discoveries. The reader, who has followed us through this brief outline
of the past, can join which of the classes he will, and be sure of
finding himself in good company.

This completes our review of past geological ages. With the termination
of the Pliocene Age we find ourselves on firmer ground. We only wish to
call attention once more to the gradual unfolding of life. We see that
the rule has been that everywhere the lower forms of life precede the
higher. In the plant world flowerless plants precede the flowering ones.
The coal we burn to-day is mainly the remains of the wonderful growth
of the flowerless vegetation of the Paleozoic Ace. When flowering plants
appear, it is the lower forms of them at first.

It was long ages before trees with deciduous leaves appeared. The growth
of animal life is equally instructive. First invertebrate life, then
the lowest forms of vertebrate life. The fishes are followed by
amphibians--then reptiles, then birds. The first mammal to appear was
the lowest organized of all--the marsupials. And we have seen the sudden
increase of mammalian life in Tertiary times. We notice, in all the
divisions of life, a beginning, a culmination, and a decline. There has
never been such a growth of flowerless plants as in the Paleozoic, and
flowe