In all probability, the birthplace of man was in a warm, if not a tropical, region of Asia--“in a garden of Eden”; and from this the River-drift man found his way into those regions where his implements occur. In India, he was a member of a tropical fauna, and his distribution in Europe and along the shores of the Mediterranean proves him to have belonged either to the temperate or the southern fauna in those regions. It will naturally be asked, To what race can the River-drift man be referred? The question, in my opinion, can not be answered in the present stage of the inquiry, because the few fragments of human bones discovered along with the implements are too imperfect to afford any clew. Nor can we measure the interval in terms of years which separates the River-drift man from the present day, either by assuming that the glacial period was due to astronomical causes, and then proceeding to calculate the time necessary for them to produce their result, or by an appeal to the erosion of valleys, or the retrocession of waterfalls. The interval must, however, have been very great to allow of the changes in geography and climate, and the distribution of animals which has taken place--the succession of races, and the development of civilization before history began. Standing before the rock-hewn tombs of the kings at Luxor, we may realize the impossibility of fixing the time when the River-drift hunter lived in the side of the ancient Thebes, or of measuring the lapse of time between his days and the splendor of the civilization of Egypt. In this inquiry I have purposely omitted all reference to the successor of the River-drift man in Europe--the Cave man--who was in a higher stage of the hunter civilization. In the course of my remarks you will have seen that the story told by the rudely chipped implements found at our very door forms a part of the wider story of the first appearance of man and of his distribution on the earth. MAN’S PRIMITIVE CONDITION --DUKE OF ARGYLL