PALEOLITHIC RACES AND THEIR 

 MODERN REPRESENTATIVES 



PART I 



By W. J. SOLLAS, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Professor of Geology, University of Oxford 



I 



The changes which have affected the face of the earth since the 

 dawn of recorded histor}' are comparatively few and unimportant. 

 In some regions, as in the British Isles, great tracts of forest 

 and marsh have been replaced by cultivated land, and some few 

 species of wild animals, such as wolves and bears, have been 

 exterminated ; but, so far as we can judge, the climate has 

 remained the same, and no movements have permanently dis- 

 turbed the level of the sea. The recent period seems to have 

 been one of geological repose, affording a peaceful and stable 

 arena for the great drama of human existence. The historian 

 consequently may pursue his researches untroubled by disturb- 

 ances of the environment, accepting the world as it now is, as 

 that which, so far as he is concerned, has always been. But 

 directly we extend our inquiries into antecedent periods, and 

 endeavour to recall the story of our species from the unwritten 

 past, we are conscious of a new regime : not constancy, but 

 change seems to dominate the environment. The climate loses 

 its stability ; it swings slowly to and fro between extremes of 

 heat and cold, of moisture and dryness, in long oscillations 

 several times repeated. Harmoniously with these, successive 

 assemblages of living forms — southern, temperate, northern — 

 faunas of the forest, the tundra, and the steppe — make their 

 appearance in the temperate European zone, disappear to re- 

 appear, and then finally vanish, either altogether or into remote 

 regions of the earth. 



Even the land itself ceases to maintain its solid firmness, but 

 subsides over larger or smaller areas beneath the waters of the 

 encroaching sea, or in some places rises to greater altitudes, and 

 even shares in the increasing growth of mountain chains. 



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