756 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lution, which was the product of the exigencies of a climate gradually 

 growing more severe. At the beginning, the animals, plants, and 

 air were those of Northern Africa, and the conditions for human ex- 

 istence were of the best. The Chellean man lived in the open air, or 

 possibly under light shelters, but did not resort to caves, and was not 

 accustomed to bury his dead. These facts explain the abundance of 

 instruments of that age in alluvial deposits, their absence from the 

 caves, which served as places of refuge in the following ages, and the 

 extreme rarity of bones. The great numbers of the implements found 

 in different parts of France give the idea of an active population of 

 considerable density, whose peaceful extension was not interrupted 

 during long ages by any unfortunate event. The race may be traced 

 by means of identical instruments, except that the materials vary 

 according to the resources of the different countries, in Spain, Portu- 

 gal, Italy, Algeria, and Egypt, and even at the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 and, in North America, in the valley of the Delaware, New Jersey, 

 and the Bridger Basin, Wyoming. The uniformity of the instruments 

 is a most striking feature. Always the same in design, they were 

 made to serve for more than one use a merit, probably, in the eyes 

 of the men who chipped them out, but a sign of inferiority in the 

 race which, for thousands of years, knew how to make these and no 

 other tools. They were not, according to M. de Mortillet, real hatchets, 

 as they have been commonly called, but simply a tool {coup de poing), 

 to be held bodily in tbe hand, and used according to the need, as 

 hatchet, knife, chisel, or gouge. The weapon of the race was a club, 

 and of that all traces have, of course, vanished. 



The slow development of the division of labor seems to have been 

 reserved for the following age, that of Moustier, which joins closely 

 upon the Chellean age, and, while less perfect in details, evidences 

 more skill and rapidity in processes, and a more utilitarian spirit. 

 Its implements are more varied and specialized in their forms. The 

 climate had become more severe ; the glaciers were approaching their 

 greatest extension ; and " Moustierian man " was obliged to take ref- 

 uge in caverns, where the relics of his industry are as frequent as 

 those that occur scattered over the soil. In other respects the race 

 and epoch of Moustier seem to have been simply a prolongation of 

 those of Chelles. Only man, under pressure of new necessities, ex- 

 perienced wants he had not previously known. He had to be more 

 industrious. Large animals had become more numerous ; he had to 

 arm himself for defense, and became a hunter. 



As no pains were taken to give the dead a permanent burial, we 

 can not expect to find many bones of these most ancient races. Pos- 

 sibly their dead were exposed, as those of some Indian tribes are now, 

 and that would be an additional reason why their remains should 

 have utterly disappeared. Leaving out the doubtful relics, M. de Mor- 

 tillet finds only a very few bones that can possibly be ascribed to the 



