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that these fractured flints, so abundant on the cliffs and 

 headlands of our coasts, as likewise on every spot where a 

 probability exists of there having been ancient occupation, 

 are in reality fractured for a purpose, and in fact that they 

 serve as the missing Hnk in that chain which connects the 

 past with the present. 



Those who have taken any interest in that all-engrossing 

 subject of the present day — the traces of early man — 

 know that four successive epochs have been marked out, 

 preceding what is commonly called the Historic Period, viz., — 



1. The Archaeolitliic, or Palaeolithic Period — that of the 

 Mammoth, Cavebear, and woolly-haired Rhinoceros, all now 

 extinct, but the remains of which are found in the diluvium, 

 or drift gravels, of our own and of foreign countries. 



2. The NeoUtliic Period, or " poHshed stone age," when 

 the art of poHshing stone weapons prevailed. 



3. The Bronze Age, in which a mixture of copper and tin 

 was used for arms, &c. 



4. The Iron Age, when this metal supplied the place of 

 bronze for tools and weapons. 



Although this antemetallic and metallic age has been ques^ 

 tioned by some few learned archaeologists, who think the 

 division too sharply defined, and although undoubted in- 

 stances may be produced oi the over-lapping of the bronze, and 

 even of the iron ages, by the later stone age, yet for all general 

 purposes a better division of the debatable ground between 

 pre-historic and historic times may very fairly be challenged. 

 ■ With regard to these stone implements, rehcs of primi- 

 tive industries. Messieurs Lartet and Christy state that 

 "they are to be regarded as indicating a grade of 

 civilisation rather than any definite antiquity ; and 

 although in some countries there are clear evidences 

 that the use of metal has come in gradually, and that the use 

 of stone has gradually gone out, yet there is no reason to 



