244
Original Articles.
While we have been straining our eyes to the East, and eagerly watching excavations in Egypt and Assyria, suddenly a new light has arisen in the midst of us; and the oldest relics of man yet discovered, have occurred, not among the ruins of Nineveh or Heliopolis, not in the sandy plains of the Nile or the Euphrates, but in the pleasant valleys of England and France, along the banks of the Seine and the Somme, the Thames and the Waveney.
So unexpected were these discoveries, so irreconcileable with even the greatest antiquity then assigned to the human race, that they were long regarded with neglect and suspicion. M. Boucher de Perthes to whom we are primarily indebted for this great step in the history of mankind, published his first work on the subject, "De l'industrie primitive, ou les arts et leur origine," in the year 1846. In this he announced that he had found human implements in beds ummistakeably belonging to the age of the drift. In his "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes" (1847), he also gave numerous illustrations of these stone weapons, but unfortunately the figures were so small and rude, as scarcely to do justice to the originals. For seven years M. Boucher de Perthes made few converts; he was looked upon as an enthusiast, almost as a madman. At length, in 1853, Dr. Rigollot, till then sceptical, examined for himself the drift at the now celebrated St. Acheul, found several weapons, and believed. Still the new creed met with but little favour; prophets are proverbially with- out honour in their own country, and M. Boucher de Perthes was no exception to the rule. At last, however, the tide turned in his favour. Dr. Falconer, passing through Abbeville, visited his collection, and made known the result of his visit to Mr. Joseph Prestwich, who, accompanied by Mr. John Evans, immediately proceeded to Abbeville and examined carefully not only the flint weapons, but also the beds in which they were found. For such an investigation our two countrymen were especially qualified: Mr. Prestwich from his long examination and great knowledge of the more recent strata; and Mr. Evans as having devoted much study to the stone implements belonging to what we must now consider as the second, or at least the more recent, stone-period. On their return to England Mr. Prestwich communicated the results of his visit to the Royal Society,[1] (On the Occurrence of Flint Implements associated
- ↑ Phil. Transact. 1860.
