THE FIRST TRACES OF MAN IN EUROPE. n 



lowlands of Europe, proves the continuance of the severity of climate ; 

 we are still dealing with the Ice period, or probably with a second ice- 

 period, as many infer from the peculiarities of the more recent drift. 

 Of course the retreat of the glaciers of this later Ice period glaciers 

 apparently less in mass and extent than those of the former one 

 would produce fresh floods and all the phenomena previously explained 

 as the results of such floods. 



Men were still troglodytes, but also to some extent lived out-of- 

 doors in so-called stations at the foot of sheltering cliffs. The domes- 

 tication of animals was not yet practised, even the reindeer being 

 used for food only, though this is disputed by some writers. Of the 

 use of metals there is not a trace. This age is shown by every indi- 

 cation to be separated from our own, the historic age, by not less than 

 10,000 years, as to its initial point, at least, for some writers believe 

 it to have been continued until the beginning of historic times. 



The knives, axes, and spear-heads, are still rough-worked, but 

 more carefully and skillfully than before. The material for them was 

 brought from considerable distances; those found in Belgium, for 

 instance, being made from flint-bowlders found in the chalk of the 

 Champagne district. Very many kinds of implements wei'e in use. 

 The pieces of iron-stone found among them were probably used there, 

 as they are now, by many tribes, for painting the face and figure. 

 Bright stones, shells, and the teeth of animals, were perforated and 

 strung into necklaces and bracelets personal vanity thus anciently 

 assertinsc itself. Skins and furs were used for clothinsr. Needles of 

 horn and bone, and pieces of horn and stones manifestly used for 

 smoothing down the seams, are often met with. The dead were buried 

 at full length in caves. 



The station at Solutre, department of Saone-et-Loire, is rich in 

 memorials of this remote age, such as carefully-wrought articles of 

 flint, and bones of the species named, especially of the reindeer; and 

 near by is a burial-cave in which are several perfectly-preserved skel- 

 etons, with skulls of the Mongol type, according to Dr. Pruner Bey. 

 In this instance the bodies of the dead were inclosed between flag- 

 stones. 



Pottery had now come into use, but it was roughly made by hand 

 and unburnt. The beginnings of art are now met, as in pictures 

 upon bone, ivory, and slate, of the mammoth, aurochs, horse, etc., 

 and even sketches of the human fisfure. In some of these drawingfs, 

 shadows are rudely but not badly shown by peculiar linings. At 

 Bruniquet, also, in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, such engrav- 

 ings of the mammoth and reindeer have been found. 



One of the most interesting collections of relics of this age was 

 found in the Station de la Madeleine, in the department of Dordogne. 

 Bones and flints from another locality seem to show the marks of an 

 iron hammer. 



