older deposits, with coarsely chipped and roughly finished human stone implements, are termed Palaeolithic, and the younger deposits with more artistically finished works in stone, bone, or metal are known as Neolithic. It will be understood that this arrangement is one rather for convenience of description than for a determination of true chronological sequence. It is quite probable, for example, that some of the palæolithic gravels date back to the Pleistocene Ice Age, while other deposits containing similar weapons and a similar assemblage of extinct mammals may belong to a much later time, when the ice had long retreated to the north. It is obvious, too, that we know nothing of the relative progress made in the arts of life by the early races of man. One race may have continued fashioning the palæolithic type of implement long after another race had already learnt to make use of the neolithic type. Even at the present day we see some barbarous races employing rude weapons of stone not unlike those of the palæolithic gravels, while others fabricate stone arrow-heads and implements of bone exactly resembling those of the neolithic deposits. It would hardly be incorrect to say that in some respects certain tribes of mankind are still in the palæolithic or neolithic condition of human progress.

1. Palæolithic.

The formations included under this term are distinguished by containing the rudest shapes of human stone implements, associated with the remains of mammals, some of which are entirely extinct, while others have disappeared from the districts where their remains have been found. These deposits may be conveniently classed under the heads of alluvium, brick-earth, cavernbeds, calcareous tufas, and loess.

Alluvium. —Reference has just been made to the upper river-terraces, which, rising sometimes 80 or 100 feet above the present level of the rivers, belong to a very ancient period in the history of the excavation of the valleys, and yet contain rude human implements. The mammalian bones, found in the sands, loams, and gravels of these terraces, include extinct species of elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other animals. human tools are roughly chipped pieces of flint or other hard stone, and their abundance in some river-gravels has suggested the belief that they were employed when the rivers were frozen over, for breaking the ice and other operations connected with fishing.

The

The high river-gravels of the Somme and of the valleys in the south-east of England have been specially prolific in these traces of early man.

Brick-earths.-On gentle slopes and on plains, the slow drifting action of wind and rain transports the finer particles of soil and accumulates them as a superficial layer of loam or brick-earth. In the south-east of England, considerable tracts of

FIG. 207.-Palæolithic Implements. (a) Flint implement, Reculver (3), chipped out of a rounded pebble; (6) Flint implement (3) from old river-gravel at Biddenham, Bedford, where remains of cave-bear, reindeer, mammoth, bison, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and other mammalia have been found; (c) Bone harpoon-head () from the red cave-earth underlying the stalagmite floor of Kent's Cavern (a and b reduced from Mr. Evans's "Ancient Stone Implements").

country have been covered with a deposit of this nature. It is still in course of accumulation, but, as already stated (p. 20), its lower parts must date back to a high antiquity, for they contain the bones of extinct mammals, together with human implements of palæolithic type.

Cave-earth and stalagmite. The origin of caverns in limestone districts was described in Chapter V, and reference was made to the formation of stalagmite on their floors, and to the remarkably perfect preservation of animal remains in and beneath that deposit. Many of these caves were dens tenanted by hyænas or other beasts of prey (p. 56). Some of them were inhabited by

man. In certain cases, they have communicated with the ground above, by openings in their roofs, through which the bodies of animals have fallen or been washed by floods. The stalagmite, by covering over the bones left on the floor of the caverns, or in the earth deposited there by water, has preserved them as a singularly interesting record of the life of the time.

Calcareous Tufa. Here and there, the incrustation of tufa formed round the outflow of calcareous springs has preserved the remains of the vegetation and of the land-animals of the palæolithic time (compare Fig. 21).

Loess. This is the name given to a remarkable accumulation of pale yellowish calcareous sandy earth which occurs in some of the larger river valleys of Central Europe, especially in those of the Rhine and the Danube; it likewise covers vast regions of China, and is found well developed in the basin of the Mississippi. It is unstratified and tolerably compact, so that it presents steep slopes or vertical walls along some parts of the valleys, and can be excavated into chambers and passages. In China subterranean villages have been dug out of it, along the sides of the valleys which it has filled up. It contains remains of terrestrial plants and snail-shells, also occasional bones of land-animals. It bears little or no relation to the levels of the ground, for it crosses over from one valley to another, and even mounts up to heights several thousand feet above the sea and far above the surrounding valleys. Its origin has been the subject of much discussion among geologists and travellers. But the result of much careful investigation bestowed upon it goes to show that the loess is probably a subaerial deposit formed by the long-continued drifting of fine dust by the wind. It was probably accumulated during a comparatively dry period when the climate of Central Europe, after the disappearance of the ice-sheet, resembled that of the steppes of the south-east of Russia. The assemblage of animals whose bones have been found in it closely resembles that of these steppes at the present time; for it includes species of jerboa, porcupine, wild horses, antelopes, etc. Among its fossils, however, there occur also the bones of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, musk-sheep, hare, wolf, stoat, etc., together with paleolithic stone implements.

Thus the association of animals in the palæolithic formations shows a commingling of the denizens of warmer and colder climates, like that already noticed as characteristic of the Ice Age, and hence the inference above alluded to that the paleolithic gravels may themselves be interglacial. Among the animals dis

tinctively of more southern type mention may be made of the lion, hyæna, hippopotamus, lynx, leopard, Caffer cat; while among the northern forms are the glutton, Arctic fox, reindeer, Alpine hare (Lepus variabilis), Norwegian lemming (Myodes torquatus), and musk-sheep. The animals which then roamed over Europe, but are now wholly extinct, included the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and other species of the genus, Irish elk (Megaceros hibernicus),

FIG. 208.-Antler of Reindeer (21) found at Bilney Moor, East Dereham, Norfolk.

and cave-bear (Ursus spelæus). The traces of man consist almost entirely of pieces of his handiwork; only rarely are any of his bones to be seen. Besides the rude chipped flints, he has left behind him, on tusks of the mammoth and horns and bones of the reindeer and other animals, preserved in the stalagmite of cavern-floors, vigorous incised outline-sketches and carvings representing the species of animals with which he was familiar, and some of which have long died out. He was evidently a hunter and fisher, living in caves and rock-shelters, and pursuing with flint-tipped arrow and javelin the bison, reindeer, horse, mammoth, rhinoceros, cave-bear, and other wild beasts of his time.

2. Neolithic

In this division, the human implements indicate a considerable advance in the arts of life, and the remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and other prevalent extinct forms of the paleolithic series are absent. The deposits here included consist of rivergravels, cave-floors, peat-bogs, lake-bottoms, raised beaches, sand-hills, pile-dwellings, shell-mounds, and other superficial accumulations in which the traces of human occupation have been preserved.

After the extinction of the huge pachyderms, the European fauna assumed the general character which it now presents, but with the presence of at least one animal, the Irish elk, that has since become extinct, and of others, such as the reindeer, elk, wild ox or urus, grizzly bear, brown bear, wolf, wild boar, and beaver, which, though still living, have long been extirpated from many districts wherein they were once plentiful. This local extinction has no doubt, in many if not in most cases, been the result, directly or indirectly, of human interference. But man not only drove out or annihilated the old native animals. As tribe after tribe of human population migrated into Europe from some region in Asia, they carried with them the animals they had domesticated—the hog, horse, sheep, goat, shorthorn, and dog. The remains of these creatures never occur among the paleolithic deposits; they make their appearance for the first time in the neolithic accumulations, whence the inference has been drawn that they never formed part of the aboriginal fauna of Europe, but were introduced by the human races of the neolithic period.

The stone articles of human workmanship found in neolithic deposits consist of polished celts and other weapons, hammers, knives, and many other implements of domestic use. Knives, needles, pins, and other objects were made out of bone or horn. There is evidence also that the arts of spinning, weaving, and pottery-making were not unknown. The discovery of several kinds of grain shows that the neolithic folk were also farmers. Vast numbers of these various relics have been found at the piledwellings of Switzerland and other countries. For purposes of security these people were in the habit of constructing their wooden dwellings in lakes on foundations of beams, wattled-work, stones, and earth. Sometimes these erections were apt to be