40 Proceedings. 



examples to show how frequently stones are even now used 

 m their natural and uutrimmed condition. The position of 

 primeval man must have been one of extreme danger and 

 difficulty, if we may judge of it by the scant vestiges of that 

 remote period. Surrounded by large animals, many of which 

 were predatory and powerful; placed at a great disadvantage 

 as regards his power of obtaining food; and living, as he 

 undoubtedly did in caves or even in burrows in the earth, his 

 lot was not a happy one from our point of view. And I am 

 inclined to think that the very fact of his producing imple- 

 ments out of stone suitable in assisting him in his simple but 

 urgent requirements, namely, food, most certainly proves that 

 there was a real necessity for such weapons, and therefore a 

 keen struggle for existence as against his numerous and 

 powerful enemies. 



It is quite possible, nay even probable, that earliest man 

 was vegetarian, and for this reason : that such food was easy 

 to procure, and required no apparatus to obtain; from this he 

 might have become acquainted with land Mollusca, and then 

 with Fresh-water and Marine Univalves and Bivalves. This, in 

 fact, is strongly borne out by the existence of those remarkable 

 mounds of shells so universally met with, and which generally 

 contain implements of stone and other pre-historic remains. 

 Again, deposits in which implements occur are more fre- 

 quently than not found near the sea, or near ancient river- 

 beds or modern rivers ; and as primeval man had no means 

 of obtaining water from wells or by artificial means, he was 

 compelled thus to form his settlements near rivers, streams, 

 lakes, &c., and he would then rapidly become acquainted with 

 such easily -procured food as the Mollusca. 



Under these conditions of life, implements and weapons 

 might have been unknown, because not absolutely required ; 

 but a time came when such simple food was supplemented by 

 that of a higher and better kind, when fish, birds, and mam- 

 mals were discovered to be superior to such diet as Mollusca, 

 and fruits or berries. Then it was that the ingenuity of 

 paljeolithic man contrived by the simplest possible means to 

 devise some meth id of capturing or killing his food, or it may 



