360 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Paleolithic period, for the prehistoric man of the Neolithic period 

 chipped many implements of stone. All implements of flint, whether 

 Paleolithic or Neolithic, were made ijartly or wholly by chipping. 

 Arrow and spear heads, knives, scrapers, drills, perforators, and such, 

 of whatever age, period, or epoch, when of flint, were made wholly by 

 chipping, while many implements of stone made by grinding or polish- 

 ing were first prepared by chipping or hammering. It is, therefore, 

 proper that a paper on Prehistoric art should begin with flint chipping. 



CHBLLEEN EPOCH (ALLUVIUM). 



The beginning of flint chipping is found in the flint implements of 

 the Chelleen epoch, called by some persons in Europe the Alluvial, by 

 others the Cave Bear period. 



M. de Mortillet, in his subdivision of the Paleolithic period, names 

 this the Ghelleen epoch after the station of Chelles (Plate 2), in the val- 

 ley of the Eiver Marne, a few miles east of Paris. This station was 





Fig. 1. 



QUATERNARY GRAVELLY DEPOSIT AT CHELLES, SECTION WHEREIN PALEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS 



' ARE FOUND. 



Cieuziou, Creation de rHoinnie et les Premiers Ages de I'llumauite, p. 172, fig. ItS. 



chosen as representative because the implements were there found in 

 their greatest purity, though not in their greatest number. These 

 have in England been called drift implements because they have been 

 found principally in the river drifts or deposits. Their original position 

 indicates the same antiquity as the gravel deposits themselves. 



There was a time when the water of the rivers filled the valleys from 

 hill to hill, pouring down with a rush its irresistible current, eroding 

 the earth, and, if need be, the rock, to make for itself an outlet. As 

 time in^ogressed the water subsided and the current became less pow- 

 erful. The sand and gravel which had before been carried out to the 

 sea began to be deposited in this bend and on that point, until at last 

 the deposit came to the surface of the water, and formed what is now 

 the highest terrace. This narrowed the river and the terrace became a 

 new river bank. This process was repeated again and again, until the 

 river finally retreated to its present bed and left its terraces, sometimes 



