(I.) General notions of the structure of the earth. (II.) The

meaning of the word 'fossil' as applied to man and other

organised beings. (III.) Prehistoric ages. (IV.) The

great antiquity of man proved by Egyptian monuments.

(I.) The splintered flints of Abbeville. (II.) Discovery of the

jawbone of Moulin-Quignon.

III. THE BONE CAVES.

(I.) History of the question. (II.) Description of the bone

caves. (III.) Age of the caverns. (IV.) Quaternary

fauna; inhabitants of the bone caves. (V.) Bones of

wounded animals found in the caves. (VI.) Entire

human skeletons found in the caves. Wounded human

bones Fractured skulls. (VII.) Proofs furnished by the

condition of the bones, and their chemical composition.

IV. THE PEAT MOSSES AND THE KITCHEN MIDDENS

(I.) The Danish peat mosses. (II.) The peat mosses of Swit-

zerland. Leaf-marked coal of Morchweill, of Wetzikon,

of Utznach, and of Durnten. (III.) The kitchen middens

or shell mounds.

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CHAP.

V. THE LAKE DWELLINGS AND THE NURAGHI

(I.) The lake dwellings of Switzerland. (II.) Implements of

Stone age found in the Swiss lakes. (III.) The in-

habitants of the lake dwellings. The Swiss epoch of the

lake dwellings. Manners and customs of their inhabi-

tants. (IV.) The flora of the Swiss lake dwellings.

(V.) Ancient and modern constructions similar to the

lake dwellings. (VI.) The Nuraghi of Sardinia.

(I.) Various methods of sepulture. (II.) Burial in caves.

(III.) Remarks upon the burial places found in the

caves. (IV.) The dolmens. (V.) The giant tombs of

Sardinia.

VII. PREHISTORIC MAN IN AMERICA

(I.) The Chulpas of Peru and Bolivia. (II.) The mounds and

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(I.) The human bones of the Volcano of la Denise. The striated

bones of the elephant of Saint l'rest. The Meiocene

flints of Thenay.

IX. THE GREAT ANTIQUITY OF MAN

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(I.) The origin of the use of fire. (II.) Food and cooking.

(III.) Clothing. (IV.) Ornaments and jewels.

II. INDUSTRY

(I.) Methods employed in the manufacture of stone imple-

ments. (II.) Religious and superstitious uses of the

flints. (III.) Weapons of war and of the chase. (IV.)

Fishing implements. (V.) Tools. (VI.) Weaving and

sewing.

(I.) Primitive agriculture. (II.) The domestication of animals.

(III.) Origin and home of our principal domestic animals.

(IV.) Origin of our cultivated plants.

VI. LANGUAGE AND WRITING

(I.) The origin of speech. (II.) Supposed characteristics of

primitive tongues. (III.) Origin of writing.

VII. RELIGION

(I.) Religious ideas of primitive man. (II.) Worship and

amulets. (III.) Cannibalism and human sacritice. (IV.)

Transformation of human sacrifice into modern religious

dogma.

VIII. THE PORTRAIT OF QUATERNARY MAN

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MAN BEFORE METALS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE only trustworthy annals of primitive humanity are written in the Book of Nature; to it, therefore, we should have recourse. Unfortunately many leaves have disappeared, or have been effaced from this great book, written by the hand of God, and those which remain are for the most part hard to interpret. Hence, in spite of the precept of ancient philosophers (yvôlɩ σɛavтòv), that which man knows least well is himself. For in fact neither his body, his affections, nor his mind, nor the vital principle which animates him, are entirely known to him; he is ignorant of his origin, his cradle, his history.

But on the other hand, man has measured the heavens, and calculated the weight of the earth and the distance of the stars. He has converted Jove, the Thunderer of old, into a mere messenger, who instantaneously transmits the thought, and even the voice of man from one end of the world to the other. He is able, moreover, by another unlooked for wonder, to recall the voice of the dead. He has taught golden-haired Phoebus and pale Diana to paint their image, his own, or that of anything he wishes, on the lens of a camera-obscura, and has even reduced them to the humble rôle of copyists of our ancient manuscripts. He has dethroned Neptune, and laughs at his terrors. He can outstrip the bird on the wing, and