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In 1835, M. Joly, then professor at the Lyceum of Montpellier, found in the cave of Nabrigas (Lozére) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an arrow had left its mark. Close by, was a fragment of pottery marked by the finger of the moulder.

It was in the valley of the Somme (a river in the north of France) that M. Boucher de Perthes found those famous flint-axes of the rudest form. His explorations had been going on for a long time. He did all he could to bring these discoveries before the public. In the year 1836 he began to proclaim the high antiquity of man, in a series of communications addressed to the Société d'Emulation of Abbeville. To the same society, in the year 1838, he exhibited the flint-axes he had found, but without result. In 1839, he took these hatchets to Paris, and showed them to some of the members of the Institute. At first they gave some encouragement toward these researches; but this favorable feeling did not last long. In 1841 he began to form his collection, which has since become so justly celebrated. He engaged trained workmen to dig in the diluvial beds, and in a short time he had collected twenty specimens of flint wrought by the hand of man, though in a very rude state. In 1846, he published his first work on the subject, entitled "De l'Industrie Primitive, ou les Arts et leur Origine." In the following year he published his "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes," in which he gave illustrations of these stone implements. This work attracted no attention until the year 1854, when a French savant, named Rigollot, made a personal examination and was successful in his search for these relicts in the neighborhood of Amiens. He was soon followed by Sir C. Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Dr. Falconer, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and other eminent scientists.

Boucher de Perthes, continuing his researches, was rewarded, in the year 1863, by finding the lower half of a human jaw bone, covered with an earthy crust, which he extracted with his own hands from a gravel-pit at Abbeville. A few inches from it a flint hatchet was discovered. They were at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface. This bone has been called the jaw of Moulin-Quignon, and is preserved in the Museum of Natural History at Paris.

The discovery of this bone produced a great sensation among English geologists. Christy, Falconer, Carpenter, and Busk went to France and examined the locality where the bone was found. They went away satisfied with both its authenticity and antiquity. Some geologists, however, doubted its authenticity; but at the present time all, or nearly all, recognize the truth of the conclusions of Boucher de Perthes.

Not far from the same locality, he was again successful, in 1869, in finding a number of human bones presenting the same character as the jaw of Moulin-Quignon.

In 1840, Rev. J. MacEnery, of Devonshire, England, found in a cave, called Kent's Hole, human bones and flint knives among the remains of the mammoth, cave-bear, hyena, and two-horned rhinoceros, all from under a crust of stalagmite. Mr. MacEnery began the explorations of this cave as early as 1825. He did not publish his notes on his discoveries but they remained in manuscript until 1859, when they were obtained by Mr. Vivian.

Mr. Godwin-Austen, in his communication to the Geological Society in the year 1840, states, in his description of Kent's Hole, he found works of art in all parts of the cave.

The fossil Man of Denise was discovered by a peasant, in an old volcanic tuff, near the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, Central France, an account of which was first published by Dr. Aymard, in 1844. Able naturalists, who have examined these bones, especially those familiar with the volcanic regions of Central France, declared that they believed them to have been enveloped by natural causes in the tufaceous matrix in which they are now seen.

In the years 1845-1850, Casiano de Prado made discoveries on the banks of the Manzanares, near Madrid. They consisted of portions of the skeletons of the rhinoceros, and a nearly perfect skeleton of an elephant in the diluvial sand. Lying beneath this ossiferous sand, were several flint axes of human workmanship.

Fig. 1.
Sir Charles Lyell.

Near the town of Aurignac, France, a workman named Bonnemaison, in the year 1852, accidently discovered a cave containing the remains of seventeen human skeletons. These bones were taken by Dr. Amiel, the mayor of Aurignac, who was ignorant of their value, and consigned to the parish cemetery. The spot of their re-inhumation has been forgotten, and this treasure is now lost to science. In 1860, the cave was explored by Edward Lartet. After a long and patient examination, he came to the conclusion that the cave was a human burial place, cotemporary with the mammoth and other great animals of the quaternary epoch.

It was at the meeting of the British Association, in 1855, that Sir Charles Lyell declared his belief in the great antiquity of the human race. He had before opposed the idea, but was convinced of the truth by personal examination of human bones and flint hatchets, from the quarries of St. Acheul. He became enthusiastic in his investigations, and, in order to present the discussion clearly to the scientific public, he published his "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man," in 1863. In the last edition of his "Principles of Geology," he bestows considerable space to the discussion of the subject. He was closely followed, in the same view, by other eminent geologists.

The remains of the ancient Lake Dwellings of Switzerland were discovered in the winter of 1853-1854. That winter was so dry and cold that the water of the lakes fell far below its ordinary level. On account of this, a large tract of ground of Lake Zurich was gained by the people throwing up embankments. In the process of the work, the piles on which stood the dwellings, fragments of pottery, bone and stone implements, and various other relics, were discovered.[5] Dr. Keller, of Zurich, examined the objects, and at once came to a right understanding as to their signification. He carefully examined the remains, and described these lake habitations in six memoirs presented to the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, in 1854, 1858, 1860, 1863, and 1866. In 1866 these memoirs were translated into English by J. E. Lee, together with articles from other antiquaries, under the title of "The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, and other parts of Europe." This work contains ninety-seven plates, besides many wood-cuts.

Memoirs of the Dwellers of different lakes have, from time to time, been published, but they are included in the translated work of Dr. Keller.

The far-famed Neanderthal skull was discovered by Dr. Fuhlrott, in the year 1857, in a limestone cavern, near Düsseldorf, in a deep ravine known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull, with parts of the skeleton to which it belonged, was found under a layer of mud, about five feet in thickness. It is now in the cabinet of Dr. Fuhlrott, Elberfeld, Rhenish Prussia.

In 1858, a bone-cavern was found near Torquay, not far from Kent's Hole. This cave was examined by a scientific commission. At first it was undertaken by the Royal Society,