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vii THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF MAN 417But this state of belief in opposition to facts could notlong continue. In 1859 a few of our most eminent geologistsexamined for themselves into the alleged occurrence of flintimplements in the gravels of the north of France, which hadbeen made public fourteen years before, and found themstrictlycorrect. The caverns of Devonshire were about thesame time carefully examined by equally eminent observers,and were found fully to bear out the statements of thosewho had published their results eighteen years before. Flintimplements began to be found in all suitable localities inthe south of England, when carefully searched for, often ingravels of equal antiquity with those of France. Cavernsgiving evidence of human occupation at various remoteperiods were explored in Belgium and the south of Francelake-dwellings were examined in Switzerland refuse-heaps inDenmark and thus a whole series of remains have beendiscovered carrying back the history of mankind from theearliest historic periods to a long distant past.The antiquity of the races thus discovered cannot bemeasured in years ;but itmay be approximately determinedby the successively earlier and earlier stages of civilisationthrough which we can trace them, and by the changes inphysical geography and of animal and vegetable life thathave since occurred. As we go back metals soon disappear,and we find only tools and weapons of stone and of bone.The stone weapons get ruder and ruder ; pottery, and thenthe bone implements, cease to occur; and in the earlieststage we find only chipped flints of rude design, thoughstill of unmistakably human workmanship. In like mannerdomestic animals disappear as we go backward ;and thoughthe dog seems to have been the earliest, it is doubtfulwhether the makers of the ruder flint implements of thegravels possessed even this. Still more important as ameasure of time are the changes in the distribution ofanimals, indicating changes of climate, which have occurredduring the human period. At a comparatively recent epochin the record of prehistoric times we find that the Balticwas far salter than it is now and produced abundance ofoysters, and that Denmark was covered with pine 'forestsinhabited by Capercailzies, such as now only occur farther2E