256. Iron Point of Boat-hook, used by the Swiss Boatmen during the Iron Epoch _ib._ 257. Horse's Bit, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._ 258. _Fibula_, or Iron Brooch, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 327 259. Iron Buckle for a Sword-belt, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel 328 260. Iron Pincers, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._ 261. Iron Spring-scissors, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel _ib._ 262. Razor 329 263. Agriculture during the Iron Epoch (whole page engraving). PRIMITIVE MAN. INTRODUCTION. Forty years have scarcely elapsed since scientific men first began to attribute to the human race an antiquity more remote than that which is assigned to them by history and tradition. Down to a comparatively recent time, the appearance of primitive man was not dated back beyond a period of 6000 to 7000 years. This historical chronology was a little unsettled by the researches made among various eastern nations--the Chinese, the Egyptians, and the Indians. The _savants_ who studied these ancient systems of civilisation found themselves unable to limit them to the 6000 years of the standard chronology, and extended back for some thousands of years the antiquity of the eastern races. This idea, however, never made its way beyond the narrow circle of oriental scholars, and did nothing towards any alteration in the general opinion, which allowed only 6000 years since the creation of the human species. This opinion was confirmed, and, to some extent, rendered sacred by an erroneous interpretation of Holy Writ. It was thought that the Old Testament stated that man was created 6000 years ago. Now, the fact is, nothing of the kind can be found in the Book of Genesis. It is only the commentators and the compilers of chronological systems who have put forward this date as that of the first appearance of the human race. M. Édouard Lartet, who was called, in 1869, to the chair of palæontology in the Museum of Natural History of Paris, reminds us, in the following passage taken from one of his elegant dissertations, that it is the chronologists alone who have propounded this idea, and that they have, in this respect, very wrongly interpreted the statements of the Bible: