The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-12 00:00:00

Antiquity of Man.

To complete the subject treated of in our number
of Thursday, we must notice a paper by M. de
Vibraye sent in to the Academy of Sciences at the
same time as that of Messrs. Lartet and Christy.
M. de Vibraye, while confirming some of the state-
ments of those gentlemen from his own observation,
adds some new facts of peculiar interest. We have
seen primitive man armed with flints; M. de
Vibraye shows that although he had no knowledge
of metallurgy, he was well aware of the existence
of metal, although the drift strata are not me-
talliferous. in the lower bed of the grottoes of
Arey (Yonne), containing the bones of the ex-
tinct Ursus spelcsus, or fossil bear, our author
found a fragment of hydrated iron, exactly si-
milar to a specimen discovered in a cromlech at
La Birochire, near Pornic (Loire-Inferieure; the
same bed also contained a piece of peroxide of man-
ganese. Two similar specimens were brought to
light in the Fournean du Diable at Bourdeilles (a
reindeer stratum) ; and lastly, a small mass of pure
copper, almost entirely covered with a coating of
green carbonate of copper, and cubic crystals of
protoxyde of the same metal was dug up in the drift
of Laugerie, in the commune of Tayac. M. de
Vibraye is decidedly of opinion that some com-
merce existed in those remote times, because the
various manufactured articles found in the drift
often lie together with sea-shells, which could
only have come from the coast, the drift being
of too modern formation to admit of any other
explanation of the circumstance. Our author also
mentions the discovery of a human atlas (the first
vertebra of the neck) amidst an accumulation of
bones of the hyena and other extinct species; a fact
which tends to carry man's first appearance upon
earth several thousand years farther back than any
historical record in existence. Among other sin-
gular discoveries we must not forget to mention a
small statue representing a woman, and carved out
of an elephant's tusk—a wonderful feat, consider-
ing that it could only have been achieved with flint
implements. The drift is sometimes found to cover
places where fires had been made, and the ashes and
cinders revealing the fact lie on blocks of limestone
foreign to the district, and evidently chosen ex-
pressly on'aocount of their power of resisting the
effects of beat. M. de Vibraye does not hesitate to
admit the existence of man during the geological
drift period, and considers the question definitively
set al reet.e—Galignani.

Governor and Mrs. T. T. Stevenstone have left
the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street.

Conseiller Tartouffa and M. de Reyneaus have
arrived at the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, from Paris

BARON ROTHSCHILD.—In reply to many inquiries
with reference to the absence of Baron Rothschild from his
Parliamentary duties, we have to state that it is caused
through ill health.—City Press. _

The marriage of Miss Gore, daughter of Gen. the
Hon. Sir C. Gore, with her cousin, Colonel Rich, of
the 71st Highlanders, great grandson of the late Arthur
Saunders, Earl of Arran, was celebrated on Thursday at
St. John's Church, Kensington. Ihe bridesmaids were
Lady Cecil Hay, Lady Anne Duff, Lady Car3line Gore,
Hon. Emily Cathcart, Miss Throckmorton, Miss Gore, Miss
Randulf, Miss Shiel, Miss Mutkerke and Miss Stothard.
The bride was given away by her gallant father.

ETON FOOTBALL.—Eton football is very different
from that of Rugby. They do not allow the ball to
be caught or carried, nor one player to be held, struck, or
pushed by another. They have no cross-bar, and in their
matches only 11 players are allowed on each side. Their
game is at the head of what is called the close system. They
commence a game with a bully in the middle of the field,
One player on each side, chosen for his skill and
speed in running, is placed at the goals to guard
them. Two others act as cornerers, to keep the ball in
the bullies. The other eight form themselves into a
compact wall, two deep, standing shoulder to shoulder, with
heads bent down and hands on knees, each side facing the
opponent's goal. The ball is placed between these two lines
at their toes by one of the cornerers. Then they push and
struggle, each side trying to bear the other down, and
drive the ball through the ranks. With sides of equal
strength, these struggles are often protracted. When the
bully is broken up, all is fair kicking at the ball, but every.
player must keep on the right side, and must avoid sneak-
ing—that is, kicking the ball along with less than three of
his opponents before him. A goal so sneaked does not
count. A goal is counted where the ball passes between
two poles 11 feet wide. Whenever a ball is kicked out at
the sidelines, it is brought straight in, and a bully is
formed on the spot. When it passes the goal-line there is
a race to touch it. If one of the side to whom the goal
belongs first touches it, it is carried to the edge and kicked
off into the middle of the ground again; but if an oppo •
nent touches it first, the grand feature of the Eton game
ensues : the ball is plaoed one yard in front of the
centre of the place marked out by the goal-sticks of the
side where the ball was touched. The players close
up, each side forming a semicircle, with their strongest
men in front. They meet each other, the ball
being in the centre of those, and then push, kick, and
struggle, till the weaker side gives way and goes down, the
other side falling on the top of them, and the ball being
somewhere beneath. In this position they carry on the
battle, and continue to writhe and struggle, trying on the
one side to creep the goal and drag the ball with them, on
the other to drive it away. These struggles sometimes
continue for 10 minutes. Players get exhausted, and creep
out; wipe the beads of perspiration from their faces; and
plunge down again with renewed vigour, till at last the
ball is dragged through the goal or got away, when every-
body gets up and declares it very jolly,—Chambers's Jour-
nal, New and Improved Series.
LETTERS FROM IRELAND AND THE CONTINENT.—
The Postmaster-General has made arrangements by
which letters brought by the Irish and French night mails,
which arrive too late for the first delivery, will now be sent
out for distribution in all parts of London at about nine
a.m., or a little atter ; being, except in the East Central
District, about an hour earlier than heretofore. This deli-
very will also include letters posted up to 6 30 a.m., at the
receiving houses and pillar letter boxes in the suburbs
nearest London.

Man SPRING TlDES.—Yesterday the tide at
Liverpool rose to an unusual height, and washed
over some of the more exposed piers and abutments. There
was a strong westerly wind, which appeared t) bo increas-
ing., last evening, so that there was a probability of a still
higher midnight tide, The height reached was nearly 21
feet,