PRIMITIVE INI)l'8TliY. 525 



liiid any relation witli the >i'eolilliic or [tolislicd stone [lericxl. kS(» 

 it lias come to pass thtit tlirougliout the world, whatever ditlerences 

 there luayhave been betweeu the seientists as to the autiqiiity ofman, 

 or the h)cality of his original appearanee, manner of his civilization, use 

 of implements (and these difit'erences have been almost intinite), nearly 

 all of tiiem have agreed ui)on the existence of this Paheolithic [leriod, 

 and that it was anterior to the jS^eolithic period. It is not therefore 

 for me to continue in this country a discussion of matters which belong 

 to other countries, and which have been fully investigated for years by 

 the scientists of those countries and been accepted as settled. If the 

 c\idence as to Paheolithic man in America be develoi)ed, arguments 

 made and investigations re([uired, it will l)e nothing more than what 

 was rcipiired iu France and England at the time of the original discov- 

 ery ; but I am not AvithcMit the belief that it will be finally acknowledged 

 to be true in our country, as it had been in other countries. A series 

 of l)ertinent questions may have already suggested themselves: What 

 is the Pahvolithic age? What are its characteristics ? By what test is 

 it to be known? Before the name Paheolithic was given to it, indeed 

 many times since, it was called the age of chipped stone. It must not 

 however be considered that every stone implement belongs to the Stone 

 age because it was chipped. Our (»wn jSTorth American Indian, during 

 all the time he has been known, even into the present century, has made 

 — indeed prehistoric man has always made — his stone arrow and spear- 

 heads by chipping. The term Paheolithic age, synonymous Avith chipped 

 stone age (to be translated as the early Stone age), is to be regarded as 

 descriptive of a certain state of human culture, — a stage of human civili- 

 zation belonging to the antiquity of man, and as its name indicates, one 

 of the earliest, if not entirely the earliest, civilization known. Sonu? pre- 

 historic anthropologists believe there have been earlier civilizations, but 

 this conclusion is disputed, and has not been generally accepted by scien- 

 tific investigators. In this early state of culture luimitive num em- 

 phned stoiui as the material for all his cutting implenn'uts. He was un- 

 acquainted with the i)ro(^esses of pecking or grinding, and so, to reduce 

 these stones to a sharp <'dge or point, he had recourse to cliipi)ing. This 

 he accomj)lished by ]KM-cussion with a hammer or ])unch, or a [)usher of 

 some kind, or possibly all three. With these he could knock off the 

 large chi])s and tiakes, and could push and press oft' the suuiller ones. 

 In this way he reduced his imi)lement to a cutting edge or point. The 

 lirst epoch or ])eriod of man's civilization was characterized by these 

 implenu'uts. This epoch was called by M. de JMortillet the <-hellean 

 (qtoch, but by JNI. Keinach and others, the alluvial i)eiiod, because tin; 

 implements W'Cre found in the alluvial dei)osits of the river valleys; while 

 others called the age of the mammoth. 



As time progressed man made certain im|»rovements oi inventions 

 and attained a highei- culture. Tliese epochs have been differently di- 

 vided and differently named; by some they have been called the cav- 



