IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) .V^ f/. I.I 1.25 *u lU 12.2 IT m ^ U2. 12.0 1.4 I 1.6 ^ 4V^ 9 /A ;^v ^-^ 4. ^ •1>^ ;\ \ *> ^ l\ %^ vV CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best origins! copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. D Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur L'Institut a microfilm^ ie meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a AtA possible de se procurer. Certains dAfauts susceptibles de nuire A la quaiit6 de la reproduction sont notis ci-dessous. 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Les images suivantes ont At6 reproduites avec le plus grand soln, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetA de I'exemplalre fllm6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol —►(meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles sulvants apparaTtra sur la der- nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signlfie "A SUSVRE", le symbole V signlfie "FIN". The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the following institution: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grAce d la g6n6rosit6 de I'dtabllssement prAteur suivant : Bibliothdque nationale du Canada Maps or plates too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper lAft hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clich6 sont filmdes A partir de I'angle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mdthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 XfJ^ Y\ gSriiisf) llosociafiott for fl)c |l5Danccmcnf of Science. / TORONTO, 1897, ADDRESS BY SIR JOHN EVANS, K.C.B. D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., Trra.s.R.S., V.P.S.A., Fou.Skc.G.S. CORRESPONDAVT DE l'In'STITUT DE FuANCK, JiC. PRESIDENT. Once more has tho Dominion of Canada invitorl tho British Association for tho Advancement of Science to hold one of tho annual mootings of its members within the Canadian territory ; and for a second time has the Association had the honour and pleasure of accepting the proffered hospitality. In doing so, the Association has felt that if by any possibility tho scientific welfare of a locality is promoted by its being the scene of such a meeting, the claims should be fully recognised of those who, though not dwelling in the British Isles, are still inhabitants of that Greater P»ritain whose prosperity is so intimately connected with tho fortunes of tho Mother Country. Here, especially, as loyal subjects of one beloved Sovereign, the sixtieth year of whose beneficent reign has just been celebrated with equal rejoic- ing in all parts of her Empire ; as speaking the same tongue, and as in most instances connected by the ties of one common parentage, we are bound together in all that can promote our common interests. There is, in all probability, nothing that will tend more to advance those interests than the diffusion of science in all parts of the British Empire, and it is towards this end that the aspirations of the British Association are ever directed, even if in many instances the aim may not bo attained. We are, as already mentioned, indebted to Canada for previous hos- pitality, but we must also renieml)er that, since tho time when we last assembled on this side of the Atlantic, the ponunion has pro\ idcd the 2 REPORT — 1897. Association with a President, Sir William Dawson, whose name ia alike well known in Britain and America, and whose reputation is indeed world-wide. We rejoice that we have still among us the pioneer of American geology, who among other discoveries first made us acquainted with the * Air-brofithers of the Coal,' the terrestrial or more properly (irhoroiil Sauiians q( the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Coal-measures. On our last visit to Canada, in 1884, our place of assembly was Mont- real, a city which is justly proud of hej* McGill University ; to-day we meet within the buildings of another of the Universities of this vast Dominion — and in a city, the absolute fitness of which for such a purpose nmst have been foreseen l)y the native Indian tribes when they gave to a small aggregation of huts upon this spot the name of Toronto — ' the place of meetings.' Our gathering this year presents a feature of entire novelty and ex- treme interest, inasmuch as the sister Association of the United States of .\merica,— still mourning the loss of her illustrious President, Professor Cope, — and some other learned societies, have made special arrangements to allow of their members coming here to join us. I need hardly say how welcome thcnr presence is, nor how gladly we look forward to their taking part in our discussions, and aiding us by interchange of thought. To such a meeting the term ' international ' seems almost misapplied. It may rathor be described as a family gathering, in which our relatives more or less distant in blood, but still intimately connected with us by language, literature, and habits of thought, have spontaneously arrau,ged to take part. The domain of science is no doubt one in which the various nations of the civilised world meet upon equal terms, and for which no other pass- port is required than sonie e\idence of having striven towards the advance- ment of natural knowledge. Here, on the frontier between the two great Knglish- speaking nations of the world, who is there that does not inwardly feel that anything which conduces to an intimacy between the representa- tives of two countries, both of them actively engaged in the pursuit of science, may also, through such an intimacy, react on the afifairs of daily life, and aid in preserving those cordial relations that have now for so many years existed between the groat American Republic and the British Islands, w ith w Inch her early foundations are indissolubly connected 1 The present year has witnessed an interchange of courtesies which has excited the warmest feelings of approbation on both sides of the Atlantic. 1 mean tlin return to its proper custodians of one of the most interesting of the relics of the Pilgrim Fathers, the Log of the ' Mayflower.' May this return, trifling in itself, be of happy augury as testifying to the feelings of mutual regard and esteem which animate the hearts both of the donors .and of the recipients ! At our meeting in Montreal the President was an investigator who had already attained to a foremost place in tiie domains of Physics and, ADDRESS. V^ 1 Mathematics, Lord Rayleigh. In his address he dealt mainly with topics, such as Light, Heat, Sound, and Electricity, on which ho is one of our principal authorities. His name and that of his fellow-worker, Professor Ramsay, are now and will in all future ages be associated with tlie dis- covery of the new element, Argon. Of the ingenious methods liy which that discovery was made, and the existence of Argon established, this is not the place to speak. One can only hope that the element will not always continue to justify its name by its inertness. The claims of such a leader in physical science as Loi-d Rayleigh to occupy the Presidential chair are self-evident, but possibly those of his successor on this side of the Atlantic are not so immediately apparent. I cannot for a moment pretend to place myself on the same purely scien- tific level as my distinguished friend and for many years colleague, Lord Rayleigh, and my claims, such as they are, seem to me to rest on entirely different grounds. Whatever little I may have indirectly been able to do in assisting to promote the advancement of science, my principal efforts have now for many years been directed towards attempting to forge those links in the history of the world, and especially of humanity, that connect the past with the present, and towards tracing that course of evolution which plays as important a part in the physical and moral development of man as it does in that of the animal and vegetable creation. It appears to me, therefore, that my election to this important post may, in the main, be regarded as a recognition by this Association of the value of Archaeology as a science. Leaving all personal considerations out of question, I gladly hail this recognition, which is, indeed, in full accordance wi^h the attitude already for many years adopted by the Association towards Anthropology, one of the most important branches of true Archaeology. It is no doubt hard to define the exact limits which are to be assigned to Archaeology as a science, and Archaeology as a branch of History and Belles Lettres. A distinction is frequently drawn between science on the one hand, and knowledge or learning on the other ; but translate the terms into Latin, and the distinction at once disappears. In illustration of this I need only cite Bacon's great work on the ' Advancement of Learning,' which was, with his own aid, translated into Latin under the title • De Aiigmentis Scientiarum.' It must, however, be acknowledged that a distinction does exist be- tween Archaeology proper, and what, for want of a better word, may be termed Antiquarianism. It may be interesting to know the internal arrangements of a Dominican convent in the middle ages ; to distinguish between the different mouldings characteristic of the principal styles of Gothic architecture ; to determine whether an English coin bearing the name of Henry was struck under Henry II., Richard, John, or Henry III., or to decide whether some given edifice was erected in Roman, 42 REPORT— 1807 Saxon, or Norman times. But the pownr to do this, though involving no small degree of detailed knowledge and some acquaintance with scientific methods, can hardly entitle its possessors to be enrolled among the votaries of science. A familiarity with all the details of Greek and Roman mythology and culture must be regarded as a literary rather than a scientific qualifica- tion ; and yet when among the records of classical times we come upon traces of manners and customs wliich have survived for generations, and which seem tt) throw some rays of light upon the dim past, when history and writing were unknown, we are, I think, approaching the boundaries of scientific Archjuology. Every reader of Virgil knows that the Greeks were not merely orators, but that with a pair of compasses they could describe the movements of the heavens and fix the rising of the stars ; but when by modern Astro- nomy we can determine the heliacal rising of some well-known star, with which the worship in some given ancient temple is known to have been connected, and can fix its position on the horizon at some particular spot, say, three thousand years ago, and then find that the axis of the temple is directed exactly towards tJiat spot, we have some truitworthy scientific evidence that the temple in question must have been erected at a date approximately 1 100 years n.c. If on or close to the same site we find that more than one temple was erected, each having a diflTerent orientation, these variations, following as they may fairly be presumed to do the changing position of the rising of the dominant star, will also afford a guide as to the chronological order of the different foundations. The researches of Mr. Penrose .seem to show that in certain Greek temples, of which the date of foundation is known from history, the actual orientation corresponds with that theoretically deduced from astronomical data, Sir J. Norman Lockyer has shown that what holds good for Greek temples applies to many of far earlier date in Egypt, though up to the present time hardly a sufficient number of accurate observations have been made to justify us in foreseeing all the instructive results that may be expected to arise from Astronomy coming to the aid of Archaeology. The intimate connection of Archeeology with ot^er sciences is in no case so e\ ident as with respect to Geology, for when considering subjects such as those I shall presently discuss, it is almost impossible to say where the one science ends and the other begins. By the application of geological methods many archreological questions relating even to subjects on the borders of the historical period have been satisfactorily solved. A careful examination of the limits of the area over which its smaller coins are found has led to the position of many an ancient Greek city being accurately ascertained ; while in England it has only been by treating the coins of the Ancient Britons, belonging to a period Iteforc the Roman occupation, as if they were actual fossils, that the territories under the dominion of the various kings and princes who struck them have boeu approximately determined. In arranging the ADDRESS. 5 chronological sc(iucncc of these coins, the evolution of their types — a pro- cess almost as remarkable, and certainly as well-deiined, us any to be found in nature — has served as an elhciejit guide. I may venture to add that the results obtained from the study of the morphology of this series of coins were published ten years before the appearance of Darwin's groat work on the ' Origin of Species.' When we conu; to tin; consideration of the relics of the Early Iron and Bronze Ages, the aid of Chemistry has of necessity to be invoked. By its means we an; able to determine whethci- the iron of a tool or weapon is of meteoritic or volcanic origin, or has beiiu reduced from iron- ore, in wliich case considerable knowledge of metallurgy would be in\ olved on the part of those who made it. With bi'onzc antiquities tlie nature and extent of the alloys combined with tiie copper nmy throw light not only on their chronological position, but on the sources whence the coppr-r, tin, and other metals of which they consist were originally derived. I am not aware of there bcang sufficient diflerences in the analyses of the native copper from different localities in the region in which we are assembled, for Canadian Archieologists to fix the sources fiom which the metal was obtained which was used in the manufacture of the ancient tools and weapons of copper that are occasionally discovered in this part of the globe. Like Chemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology may be called to the assistance of Archieology in tletermining the nature and source of the rocks of which ancient stone implements are made ; and, thanks to researches of the followers of those sciences, the old view that all such implements formed of jade and found in Europe must of necessity have been fashioned from material imported from Asia can no longer be main- tained. In one respect the Arclueologist ditters in opinion from the Mineralogist —namely, as to the propriety of chipping off fragments from perfect and highly finished specimens for the purpose of submitting them to microscopic examination. I have hitherto been speaking of the aid that other .sciences can afford to Archaeology when dealing with questions that come almost, if not quite, within the fringe of history, and belong to times when the surface of our earth presented much the same conHguration as regards the distribution of land and watei', and hill and valh^y, as it does at present, and wiien, in all probability, the climate was much the same as it now is. When, how- ever, we come to discuss t: remote age in which we find t'e earliest traces that are at present known of JSIan's appearance upon earth, the aid of Geology and Paheontology becomes absolutely imperative. The changes in the surface configuration and in the extent of the land, especially in a country like Britain, as well as the modifications of the fauna and llora since those days, have been such that the Archicologist pure and simple is incompetent to deal with tliem, and he must either himself undertake the study of these other sciences or call experts in them « RF.rORT — 180' to his assistance. The evidence that Man had already appeared upon the earth is afforded by stone implements wrought by liis hands, and it falls strictly within the province of the Arcliicologist to judge whether given specimens were so wrougfit or not ; it rests with the Geologist to deter- mine their .•itratigraphical or chronological position, while the Palaionto- logist can pronounce upon the age and character of the associated fauna and flora. If left to himself the Archaeologist seems too prone to buildup theories founded upon form alone, irrespective of geological conditions. The Geo- logist, unaccustomed to archaeological details, may readily fail to see the difference between the results of the operations of Nature and those of Art, and may be liable to trace the effects of man's handiwork in the chipping, bruising, and weai'ing which in all ages result from ratural forces ; but the united labours of the two, checked by those of the Paheontologist, cannot do otherwise than lead awards sound conclu- sions. It will perhaps be expected of me that I should on the present occa- sion bring under review the state of our present knowledge with regard to the Antiquity of Man ; and probably no fitter place could be found for the discussion of such a topic than the adopted home of my venerated friend, the late 8ir Daniel "Wilson, who first introduced the word ' pre- historic ' into the English language. Some among us may be able to call to mind the excitement, not only among men of science but among the general public, when, in 1859, the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes and Dr. Rigollot in the gravels of the valley of the Sonuiie, at Abbeville and Amiens, were confirmed by the investigations of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, myself, and others, and the co-existence of Man with the extinct animals of the Quaternary fauna, such as the man^motli and woolly-haired rhinoceros, was first virtually established. It was at the same time pointed out that these relics belonged t(» a far earlier date than the ordinary stone weapons found upon the surface, which usually showed signs of grinding or polish- ing, and that in fact there were two Stone Ages in Britain. To these the terms Neolithic and Paheolithic were subsequently applied by Sir John Lubbock. The excitement was not less, when, at the meeting of this Association at Aberdeen in the autumn of that year. Sir Charles Lyell, in the presence of the Prince Consort, called attentifni (o the discoveries in the valley of the Somme, the site of which he had himself visited, and to the vast lapse of time indicated by the position of the implements in drift-deposits a hundred feet above the existing river. The conclusions forced upon those who examined the facts on the spot did not receive immediate acceptance by all who were interested in Geo- logy and Arclun)logy, and fierce were the controversies on the subject that were carried on both in the new.spapers and before various learned societies. ADDRESS. It is at tho same tiino iiiutructive and amusing to look back nn tlio (liscus8ions of those days. Wliilo one class of olyectors accounled for tlio configuration of tho Hint iinphnneiits from the gravels by some unknown chemical agency, by the violent and continued gyratory at^tion of water, by fracture resulting from pressure, by rapid cooling when hot or by rapid heating when cold, or even regarded them as alierrant f»»rm8 of fossil fishes, tliore were others who, when compelled to acknttwledge that (he implements were the work of men's hands, attempted to impugn and set aside the evidence as to the circumstances under which they had been discovered. In doing this they adopted the view that the worked flints had either been introduced into th(^ containing beds at a comparatively recent date, or if they actually formed constituent parts of the gravel then that this was a. mere modern alluvium resulting from floods at no very remote period. In the course of a few years the main stream of scientific thought left this controversy behind, though a tendency to cut down the lapse of time necessary for all the changes that liave taken place in the configuration of the surface of the earth and in the character of its (jccupants since the time of the Palaiolithic gravels, still survives in the inmost recesses of the hearts of not a few observers. In his Address to this Association at the Bath meeting of 1HG4, Sir Charles Lyell struck so true a note that I am tempted to reproduce the paragraph to which I refer : — ' When speculations on the long series of events which occurred in the glacial and post-glacial periods are indulged in, the imagination is apt to take alarm at the immensity of the time required to interpret the monu- ments of these ages, all referable to the era of existing species. In ordei- to abridge the number of centuries which would otherwise be indispensable, a disposition is shown by many to magnify the rate of change; in pre- historic times by investing the causes which have modified the animate and inanimate world with extraordinary and excessive energy. It is related of a great Irish orator of our day that when he was about to contribute somewhat parsimoniously towards a public charity, he was persuaded by a friend to make a more liberal donation. In doing so he apologized for his first apparent want of generosity by saying that his early life had been a constant struggle with scanty means, and that " they who are born to affluence cannot easily imagine how long a time it takes to get the chill of poverty out of one's bones." In like manner we of the living generation, when called upon to make grants of thousands of centuries in order to explain the events of what is called the modern period, shrink naturally at first from making what seems so lavish an expenditure of past time. Throughout our early education we have been accustomed to such strict economy in all that relates to the chronology »>f the earth and its inhabitants in remote ages, so fettered have we been by old traditional beliefs, that even when our reason is convinced, and we n RErORT- -1897. are persuaded thai wo ought to inako nioro liberal grants of time to the Geologist, wo fool how hard it is to got the chill of poverty out of our bones.' Many, however, have at the present day got over this feeling, and of late years the general tendency of those engaged upon the question of the antitjuity of the human ic^ -e has been in the direction of seeking for evidence by which the exisiunce of Man ujion the earth could bo carried back to a date earlier than that of the Quaternary gravels. TluM-e is little doubt that such evidence will eventually bo forthcoming, but, judging from all probability, it is not in Northern Europe that the cradle of the hunum race will c\ tually be discovered, but in some part of the world more favoured by a ipical clinuite, where abundant means of subKi.stence could be procured, and where the necessity for warm clothing did not exist. liefore (iutering into speculations on this subject, or attempting to lay down the limits within which we may safely accept recent discoveries as lii'mly (^stabliKhed, it will be well to glance at some of the cases in which implements are stated to have been found under circumstances which raise a presumption of the existence of man in pre-Glacial, Pliocene, or even Miocene times. Fli. t implements of ordinary Palajolithic type have, for instance, been recorded as found in the Eastern Counties of England, in beds beneath the Chalky Boulder Clay ; but on careful examin.ition the geological evidence has not to my mind proved satisfactory, nor has it, I believe, been genei-ally accepted. Moreover, the archa'ological difficulty that Man, at two such remote epochs as the pi-e-Clacial and the post- Glacial, even if the term CJlacial be limited to the Chalky Boulder Clay, should have manufactured implements so identical in character that they cannot be distinguished apart, seems to have been entirely ignored. Within the last few months we have had the report of worked flints having been discovered in the late Pliocene Forest Bed of Norfolk, but in that instance the signs of human workmanship upon the flints are by no means apparent to all observers. But such an antiquity as that of the Forest Bed is as nothing when compared with that which would be implied by the discove.^ <es of the work of men's hands in the Pliocene and Miocene beds of England, France, Italy, and Portugal, which have been accepted by some (icologists. Tluire is one feature in these cases which has hardly received due attention, and that is the isolated character of the reputed discoveries. Had man, for instance, been present in Britain during the Crag Period, it would be strange indeed if the sole traces of his existence that he left were a perforated to^tth of a large shark, the sawn rib of a manatee, and a beaming full face, carved on the shell of a pectunculus ! In an address to the Anthi-opological Section at the Leeds meeting of this xVssociation in 1890 I dealt somewhat fully with these supposed ADDRESS. 9 discoveries of the remains of human art in hods of Tertiary date ; and I need not here go further into the question. Suffice it to say that I sea no reason why the verdict of ' not proven ' at which I then arrived shimld be reversed. In the case of a nn ^ recent discovery in Upper Durma in beds at first pronounced to be Upper Miocono, but subseijuently * definitely ascertained to be Pliocene,' some of the flints are of purely natural and not artificial origin, so that two questions arise : first. Were the fossil remains associated with the worked flints or with th(».se of natural forms ? And second, Wert; they actually found in the Ix^d to which they have been assigned, or did thoy merely lie tog(!ther on the surface ? Even the Pithecanthrojnis erectus of Dr. Eugone Dubois from Java meets with some incredulous objectors from both the physiological and the geological sides. From the point of view of the latter the difficulty lies in determining the exact age of what are apparently alluvial beds in the bottom of a river \alley. When we return to Paleolithic man, it is satisfactory to feel that we are treading on comparatively secure ground, and that the discoveries of the last forty years in Britain alone enable us to a great extent to recon- stitute his history. We may not know he exact geological period when first he settled in the British area, but we have good evidence that he occupied it at a time when the configuration of the surface was entirely different from what it is at picsent : when the river valleys had not been cut down to anything like their existing depth, when the fauna of the country was of a totally different character from that of the present day, when the extension of the southern part of the island seaward was in places siich that the land was continuous with that of the continent, and when in all probability a far more rainy climate prevailed. Wy have proofs of the occupation of the country by man during the long lapse of time that was necessary for the excavation of the river valleys. We have found the old floors on which his habitations were fixed, we have been able to trace him at work on the manufacture of flint instruments, and by Ijuilding up the one upon the other the flakes struck off by the primajval workman in those remote times we have been able to reconstruct the blocks of flint which served as his material. That the duration of the Palajolithic Period must have extended over an almost incredible length of time is si.:>;ciently proved liy the fact that valleys, some miles in width and of a depth of from 100 to 150 feet, have been eroded since the deposit of the earliest implement-bearing beds. Nor is the ai)parent duration of this period diminished by the consideration that the floods which hollowed out the valleys were not in all pi-obability of such frequent (tccurrcnce as to teach Paheolithic man by experience the danger of settling too near to the streams, for had he kept to the higher slopes of the valley there would have been but little chance of his implements having so constantly formed constituent parts of the gravels deposited by the floods. 10 RErOKT — 180< The examination of British cave-doposits affords corroborative evi- dence of this extended duration of the Palaeolithic Period. In Kent's Cavern at Torquay, for instance, we find in the lowest deposit, the Ijreccia below the red cave-earth, implements of flint and chert corresponding in all respects with those of the high level and most ancient river gravels. In the cave-earth the'»3 are scarcer, though implements occur which also have their aualoguea in the river deposits ; but, what is more remarkable, harpoons of reindeer's liorn and needles of bone are present, identical in form and character with tliose of the caverns of the Reindeer Period in the South of Frar.cc, and suggestive of some bond of union or identity of descent between the early troglodytes, whose habitations were geographi- cally so widely separated the one from the other. In a cavern at Creswell Crags, on the confines of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, a bone has moreover been found engraved with a repre- sentation of parts of a horse in precisely the same style as the engraved bones of the French caves. It is uncertain whether any of the River-drift specimens belong to so late a date as these artistic cavern-remains ; but the greatly superior antiquity of even these to any Neolithic relics is testified by the thick layer of stalagmite, which had been deposited in Kent's Cavern before its occupation l)y men of the Neolithic and Bronze Periods. Towards the close of the period covered by the human occupatiori of the French caves, there seems to have been a dwindling in the number of the larger animals constitutin'^ *^he Quaternary fauna, whereas their re- mains are present in abunr" k e n . the lower and therefore more recent of the valley gravels. This .u^ ' tance may afford an argument in favour of regarding the period reprr .ited by the later French caves as a con- tinuation of that during whic he old river gravels were deposited, and yet the great change in the fa^ la that has taken place since the latest of the cave-deposits included in the Palaeolithic Period is indicative of an immense lapse of time. How much greater must have been the time required for the more conspicuous change between the old Quaternary fauna of the river gravels and that characteristic of the Neolithic Period ! As has been pointed out by Prof. Boyd Dawkins, only thirty-one out of the forty-eight well- ascertained species living in the post-Glacial or River-drift Period survived into pre- historic or Neolithic times. We have not, indeed, any means at command for estimating the number of centuries which such an important change indicates ; but when we remember that the date of the commencement of the Neolithic or Surface Stone Period is still shrouded in the mist of a dim antiquity, and that prior to that commencement the River-drift Period had long come to an end ; and when we fui'ther i,>ke into account the almost inconceivable ajres that even under the most favourable conditions the excavation of wide anvl deep valleys by river action implies, .he remoteness of the date ADDRESS. 11 at which the Palaeolithic Period had its beginning almost transcends our powers of imagination. We find distinct traces of river action from 100 to 200 feet above the level of existing streams and rivers, and sometimes at a great distance from them ; we observe old fresh-water deposits on the slopes of valleys several miles in width ; we find that long and lofty escarpments of rock have receded unknown distances since their summits were first occupied by Palaeolithic man ; we see that the whole side of a wide river valley has been carried away by an invasion of the sea, which attacked and removed a barrier of chalk cliffs from 400 to 600 feet in height ; we find that what was formerly an inland river has been widened out into an arm of the sea, now the highway of our fleets, and that gravels which were originally deposited in the bed of some ancient river now cap isolated and lofty hills. And yet, remote as the date of the first known occupation of Britain by man may be, it belongs to what, geol'^^ically speaking, must be regarded as a quite recent period, for we are now in a position to fix with some degree of accuracy its place on the geological scale. Thanks to investigations ably carried out at Hoxne in Suffolk, and at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, by Mr. Clement Reid, under the auspices of this Associa- tion and of the Royal Society, we know that the implement-bearing beds at those places undoubtedly belong to a time subsequent to the deposit of the Great Chalky Boulder Clay of the Eastern Counties of England. It is, of course, self-evident that this vast deposit, in v, hatever manner it may have been formed, could not, for centuries after its deposition was complete, have presented a surface inhabitable by man. Moreover, at a distance but little farther north, beds exist which also, though at a some- what later date, were apparently formed under Glacial conditions. At Hoxne the interval between the deposit of the Boulder Clay and of the implement-bearing beds is distinctly proved to have witnessed at least two noteworthy changes in climate. The beds immediately reposing on the Clay are characterised by the presence of alder in abundance, of hazel, and yew, as well as by that of numerous flowering plants indicative of a temperate climate very different from that under which the Boulder Clay itself was formed. Above these beds characterised by temperate plants, comes a thick and more recent series of strata, in which leaves of the dwarf Arctic willow and birch abound, and which were in all probability deposited under conditions like those of the cold regions of Siberia and North America. At a higher level and of more recent date than these — from which they are entirely distinct — are the beds containing Palaeolithic imple- ments, formed in all probability under conditions not essentially different from those of the present day. However this may be, we have now con- clusive evidence that the Palaeolithic implements are, in the Eastern Counties of England, of a date long posterior to that of the Great Chalky Boulder Clay. 12 REPORT — 1897. It may be said, and said truly, that the implements at Hoxne cannot be shown to belong to the beginning rather than to some later stage of the Palaeolithic Period. The changes, however, that have taken place at Hoxne in the surface configuration of the country prove that the beds containing the implements cannot belong to the close of that period. It must, moreover, be remembered that in what are probably the earliest of the Pala;olithic deposits of the Eastern Counties, those at the highest level near Brandon in Norfolk, where the gravels contain the largest proportion of pebbles derived from Glacial beds, some of the implements themselves have been manufactured from materials not native to the spot but brought from a distance, and derived in all pro- bability either from the Boulder Clay or from some of the beds associated with it. We must, however, take a wider view of the whole question, for it must not for a moment be supposed that there are the slightest grounds for believing that the civilisation, such as it was, of tl«v' ralieolithic Period originated in the British Isles. We find in other countries implements so identical in form and character with British specimens that they might have been manufactured by the same hands. These occur over large areas in France under similar conditions to those that prevail in England. The same forms have been discovered in the ancient river gravels of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Some few have been recorded from the north of Africa, and analogous types occur in considerable numbers in the south of that continent. On the banks of the Nile, many hundreds of feet above its present level, implements of the European types have been discovered ; while in SomaliLaid, in an ancient river valley at a great elevation above the sea, Mr. Seton-Karr has collected a large number of implements formed of flint and quartzite, which, judging from their form aad character, might have been dug out of the drift deposits of the Somme or the Seine, the Thames or the ancient Solent. In the valley of the Euphrates implements of the same kind have also been found, and again farther east in the lateritic deposits of Southern India they have been obtained in considerable numbers. It is not a little remarkable, and is at the same time highly suggestive, that a form of implement almost peculiar to Madras reappears among imple- ments from the very ancient gravels of the Manzanares at Madrid. In the case of the African discoveries we have as yet no definite Palasonto- logical evidence by which to fix their antiquity, but in the Narbada Valley of Western India PaUt'olithic implements of quartzite seem to be associated with a local fauna of Pleistocene age, comprising, like that of Europe, the elephant, hippopotamus, ox, and other mammals of species now extinct. A correlation of the two faunas with a view of ascertainin<r their chronological relations is beset with many difficulties, but there seems reason for accepting this Indian Pleistocene fauna as in some degree more ancient than the European. 4 ADDRESS. 13 , Is this not a case in which the imagination may be fairly invoked in aid of science ? May we not from these data attempt in some degree to build up and reconstruct the early history of the human family 1 There, in Eastern Asia, in a tropical climate, with the means of subsistence readily at hand, may we not picture to ouj-selves our earliest ancestors gradually developing from a lowly origin, accjuiring a taste for hunting, if not indeed being driven to protect themselves from the beasts around them, and evolving the more complicated forms of tools or weapons from the simpler flakes which had previously served them as knives ? May we not imagine that, when once the stage of civilisation denoted by these Palieolithic implenients had been reache<l, the game for the hunter became scarcer, and that his life in consequence assumed a more nomad character ? Then, and possibly not till then, may a series of migrations to 'fresh woods and pastures new' not 'i naturally have ensued, and these follow- ing the usual course of 'westward towards the setting sun' might eventually lead to a Paheolithic population finding its way to the extreme Iwrders of Western Europe, where we tind such numerous traces of its presence. How long a term of years may be involved in such a migration it is impossible to say, but that such a migration took place the phenomena seem to justify us in believing. It can hardly be supposed that the pro- cess that I have shadowed forth was reversed, and that Man, having originated in North-Western Europe, in a cold climate where clothing was necessary and food scarce, subsequently migrated eastward to India and southward to the Cape of Good Hope ! As yet, our records of dis- coveries in India and Eastern Asia are but scanty ; but it is there that the traces of the cradle of the human race are, in my opinion, to be sought, and possibly future discoveries may place upon a more solid foundation the visionary structure that I have ventured to erect. It may be thought that my hypothesis does not do justice to what Sir Thomas Browne has so happily termed * that great antiquity, America.' I am, however, not here immediately concerned with the important Neolithic remains of all kinds with which this great continent abounds. I am now confining myself to the question of Paheolithic man and his origin, and in considering it I am not unmindful of the Trenton implements, though I must content myself by saying that the ' turtle- back ' form is essentially diflerent from the majority of those on the wiile dissemination of which I have been speculating, and, moreover, as many here present are aware, the circumstances of the finding of these American implements are still under careful discussion. Leaving them out of the question for the present, it may be thought worth while to carry our speculations rather further, and to consider the relations in time between the Palajolithic and the Neolithic Periods. We have seen that tho stage in human civilisation denoted by the use of the ordinary forms of Pala.'olithic implements must have extended over a vast REPORT — 1897. period of time if we have to allow for tlie migration of the primaeval hunters from their original home, wherever it may have been in Asia or Africa, to the west of Europe, including Britain. We have seen that, during this migration, the forms of the weapons and tools made from silicious stones had become, as it were, stereotyped, and further, that, during the subsequent extended period implied by the erosion of the valleys, the modifications in the form of the implements and the changes in the fauna associated with the men who used them were but slight. At the close of the period during which the valleys were being eroded comes that represented by th(^ latest occupation of the caves by Palieolithic man, when both in Britain and in the south of France the reindeer was abundant ; but among the stone weapons and implements of that long troglodytic phase of man's history not a single example with the edge sharpened by grinding has as yet been found. All that can safely be said is that the larger implements as well as the larger mammals had become scarcer, that greater power in chipping flint had been attained, that the arts of the engraver and the sculptor had considerably developed, and that the use of the bow had probably been discovered. Directly we encounter the relics of the JNeolithic Period, often, in the case of the caves lately mentioned, separated from the eai-lier remains by a thick layer of underlying stalagmite, we find flint hatchets polished at the edge and on the surface, cutting at the broad and not at the narrow end, and other forms of implements associated with a fauna in all essential respects identical with that of the present day. Were the makers of these polished weapons the direct descendants of Palseolitbic ancestors whose occupation of the country was continuous from the days of the old river gravels 1 or had these long since died out, so that after Western Europe had for ages remained uninhabited, it was re-peopled in Neolithic times by the immigration of some new race of men 1 Was there, in fact, a • great gulf fixed ' between the two occupa- tions ? or was there in Europe a gradual transition from the one stage of culture to the other 1 It has been said that • what song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture ' ; and though the questions now proposed may come under the same category, and must await the dis- covery of many more essential facts before they receive definite and satis- factory answers, we may, I think, throw some light upon them if we venture to take a few steps upon the seductive if insecure paths of con- jecture. So far as I know we have as yet no trustworthy evidence of any transition from the one age to the other, and the gulf between them remains practically unbridged. We can, indeed, hardly name the part of the world in which to seek for the cradle of Neolithic civilisation, though we know that traces of what app.nr to have been a stone-using people have been discovered in Egypt, and that what must be among the latest A^bhEss. 11^ • of tho relics of their industry have been assigned to a date some 3,500 to 4,000 years before our era. The men of that time had attained to the highest degree of skill in working flint that has ever been reached. Their beautifully made knives and spear-heads seem indicative of a culmi- nating point reached after long ages of experience ; but whence these artists in flint came or who they were is at present absolutely unknown, and their handiworks afford no clue to help us in tracing their origin. Taking a wider survey, we may say that, generally speaking, not only the fauna but the surface configuration of the country were, in Western Europe at all events, much the same at the commencement of the Neolithic Period as they are at the present day. We have, too, no geological indi- cations to aid us in forming any chronological scale, The occupation of some of the caves in the south of France seems to have been carried on after the erosion of the neighbouring river valleys had ceased, and so far as our knowledge goes these caves offer evidence of being the latest in time of those occupied by Man during the Palreolithic Period. It seems barely possible that, though in the north of Europe there are no distinct signs of such late occupation, yet that, in the south, Man may have lived on, though in diminished numbers ; and that in some of the caves, such, for instance, as those in the neighbourhood of Mentone, there may be traces of his existence during the transitional period that connects the Palaeolithic and Neolithic Ages. If this were really the case, we nn'ght expect to find some traces of a dissemination of Neolithic culture from a North Italian centre, but I much doubt whether any such traces actually exist. If it had been in that part of the world that the transition took place, how are we to account for the abundance of polished stone hatchets found in Central India ? Did Neolithic man return eastward by the same route as that by which in remote ages his P;ila3olithic predecessor had migrated westward 1 Would it not be in defiance of all probability to answer such a question in the affirmative 1 We have, it must be confessed, nothing of a substantial character to guide us in these specula- tions ; but, pending the advent of evidence to the contrary, we may, I think, provisionally adopt the view that owing to failure of food, climatal changes, or other causes, the occupation of Western Europe by Palaeolithic man absolutely ceased, and that it was not until after an interval of long duration that Europe was re-peopled by a race of men immigrating from some other part of the globe where the human race had survived, and in course of ages had developed a higher stage of culture than that of Paleeolithic man. ' I have been carried away by the liberty allowed for conjecture into the regions of pure imagination, and must now return to the realms of fact, and one fact on which I desire for a short time to insist is that of the existence at the present day, in close juxtaposition with our own civilisation, of races of men who, at all events but a few generations ago, 16 REPORT— 1897. lived under much the same conditions as did our own Neolithic predecessors in Europe. Tl»e manncTS and customs of these primitive tribes and peoples are ehaiigiuf; day by day, their languages are becoming o!)sol<'te, their myths and traditions are dying out, their ancient processes of nianufaciure arc falling into oblivion, and their numbers are rapidly diminishing, so that it seems inevitable that ere long many of these interesting populations will become absolutely extinct. Tlu; admirable Bureau of Ethnology instituted by our neighbours in the United States of America has done much towards preserving ;», knowledge of the various native races in this vast continent ; and here in Canada the annual Archteological Reports pre- sented to the Minister of Education are rendering good service in the same cause. Moreover the Committee of this Association appointed to investigate the physical characters, languages, and industrial and social conditions of the North- Western tribes of the Dominion of Canada is about to present its twelfth and iinal report, which in conjunction with those already pre- sented will do much towards preserving a knowledge of the habits and languages of those tribes. It is sad to think that Mr. Horatio Hale, whose comprehensive grasp of the bearings of ethnological questions, and w^liose unremitting labours have so materially conduced to the success of the Committee, should be no longer among us. Although this report is said to be final, it is to be hoped that the Conniiittee may be able to indicate lines upon which future work in the direction of ethnological and arclueological research may be profitably carried on in this part of Her Majesty's dominions. It is, however, himentable to no* ' 'e how little is being or has been oflicially done towards preserving a full record of the habits, beliefs, arts, myths, languages, and physical characteristics of the countless other tribes and nations more or less uncivilised which are comprised within the limits of the British Empire. At the meeting of this Association held last year at Liverpool it was i^esolved by the General Conunittee ' that it is of urgent importance to press upon the Government the necessity of establishing a Bureau of Ethnology for Greater Britain, which by collect- ing information with regard to the native races within and on the borders of the Empire will prove of immense value to science and to the Govern- ment itself.' It has been suggested that such a bureau might with the greatest advantage and with the least outlay and permanent expense be coiuiected either with the British Museum or with the Imperial Institute, and the project has already been submitted for the consideration of the Trustees of the former establishment. The existence of an almost unrivalled ethnological collection in the ISluseum, and the presence there of officers already well versed iii ethnological research, seem to aflbrd an argument in favour of the proposed bureau being connected with it. On the other hand, the Imperial Insti- 1 ADDRESS. 1.1 •eel tute was founded with an especial view to its being a centre around wliich every interest connected with the dependencies of the Empire might gather for information and support. The ostal)lis!irnent witliin the hist twelve months of a Scientific Department within the Institute, with well- appointed laboratories and a highly trained staff, shows how ready are those concerned in its management to undertake any duties that may conduce to the welfare of the outlying parts of the British Empire ; a fact of which I believe that Canada is fully awai«;. The Institute is therefore likely to develop, so far as its scientific department is concei-nod, into ' Bureau of advice in all matters scientific and technical, and certainly a Bureau of Ethnology such as that suggested would not be out of place within its walls. Wherever such an institution is to be established, the question of its existence must of necessity rest with Her Majesty's Government and Treasury, inasmuch as without funds, however moderate, the undertaking cannot l)e carried on. I trust that in considering ti le question it will always be borne in mind that in the relations between civilised and uncivilised nations and races it is of the first importance that the pre- judices and especially the religious or semi-religious and caste prejudices of the latter should be thoroughly well known to the former. If but a single 'little war' could be avoided in consequence of the knowledge acquired and stored up by the Bureau of Ethnology preventing such a misunderstanding as might culminate in warfare, the cost of such an institution would quickly be saved. I fear that it will be thought that I have dwelt too long on priina3val man and his modern representatives, and that I should have taken this opportunity to discuss some more general subject, such as the advances made in the various departments of science since last this Association met in Canada. Such a subject would no doubt have afforded an infinity of interesting topics on which to dilate. Spectrum analysis, the origin and nature of celestial bodies, photography, the connection between heat, light, and electricity, the practical applications of the latter, terresti-ial magnetism, the liquefaction and solidification of gases, the behaviour of elements and compounds under the influence of extreme cold, the nature and uses of the Rcintgen rays, the advances in bacteriology and in pro- phylactic medicine, might all have been passed under review, and to many of my audience would have seemed to possess greater claims to attention than the subject that I have chosen. It must, however, be borne in mind that most, if not indeed all, of the.se topics will be discussed by more competent authorities in the various Sections of the Association by means of the Presidential addresses or otherwise. Nor must it be forgotten that I occup)' this position as a representative of Archceology, and am therefore justified in bringing before you a subject in which every member of every race of mankind ought to be interested — the antiquity of the human family and the scenes of its infancy. ■ 18 REPORT — 1897. Others will direct our thoughts in other directiona, but the farther we proceed the more clearly shall wo realise the connection and inter- depp.idence of all departments of science. Year after year, as meetings of this Association take place, v.e may also foresee that ' many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall bo increased.' Year after year advances will be made in science, and in reading that Book of Nature that lies ever open before our eyes ; successive stones will be brought for building up that Temple of Knowledge of which our fathers and we have labouretl to lay the foundations. May we not well exclaim with old Robert Recorde ? — • Oh woorthy temple of Goddes magnificence : Oh throne of glorye and seate of the lorde : thy substance most pure what tonge can describe 1 thy signes are so wonderous, surmountinge mannes witte, the effects of thy motions so diuers in kinde : so harde for to searche, and worse for to fynde — Thy woorkes are all wonderous, thy cunning unknowen : yet seedes of all knowledge in that booke are sowen — And yet in that boke who rightly can reade, to all secrete knowledge it will him straighte leade.' ' . . ' Preface to Robert Recorde's Castle of Knonleoge, 1556, ii k PUINTKD BY UPOTTlSWOODt AND CO., XKW-STUEKT SQUARE LONDON