20 



generally buried their dead in a contracted posture, and wlio were 

 not acquainted with the use of metals, aU their weapons being either 

 of bone or of stone. Such barrows belong, in fact, to the later 

 stone-using period, or neohthic age. Evidence similar to that 

 obtained from the barrows, is furnished by the remains of the pile- 

 buildings, or lacustrine habitations, which occur especially in many 

 of the lakes of Switzerland. The same sequence may also be traced 

 in the deposits which are found in many ossiferous caves. In some 

 of these caves, rude stone implements are met with in conjunction 

 with certain extinct mammalia, such as the mammoth and the woolly- 

 haired rhinoceros, and are, therefore, older than the neolithic period. 

 They belong, indeed, to the earlier stone age called the palaeolithic 

 age. At this period, prehistoric man was ignorant of the art of 

 polishing his stone implements. His rudely-chipped weapons are 

 also found in association with the extinct quaternary mammals, in 

 many of the high-level gravels which occupy the terraces bordering 

 many of our rivers. Li the French caverns, which were carefully 

 explored by Christy and Lartet, the relics of palaeolithic man include 

 a large number of implements in reindeer antler, which bear incised 

 figures of the animals of the period, such as the reindeer and the 

 mammoth. These palaeolithic men were probably akin to the 

 Eskimos. They lived under a very rigorous climate ; they subsisted 

 by hunting and fishing ; they were surrounded by Arctic animals ; 

 and they used carved bone implements, not unlike those of the 

 Eskimos of the present day. As palaeolithic man retreated north- 

 ward, his place was taken by neolithic man. So far as we can 

 judge by his remains, he possessed a long skull {dolichocephalic), 

 had an oval face, was of short stature (say oft. 5in.), and maj- 

 possibly be represented, at the present day, by the Basques of the 

 Western Pyrenees. These people appear to have been invaded by 

 the bronze-using men, who were a taller race (about 5ft. 8in.), 

 possessed a broad skull (brachj/cephalic), had beethng brows, pro- 

 jecting jaw, and altogether a ferocious aspect. The Dolichocephalic 

 being conquered, the two races probably coalesced, and hence the 

 origin of the oval skulls found in certain caves and baiTows. These 

 people possessed the greater part of the country at the time of 

 Caesar's invasion. The Lectiu-er glanced briefly at the evidence, 



