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appearance ; but setting aside the fact that its age is not so 
well authenticated, we have no evidence to prove it was not 
an exceptional skull and might very likely have belonged to 
an idiot, at any rate none other has been discovered at all like 
it, nor haye any transitional forms ever been brought to light, 
as we might have reasonably expected. We may then, I 
think, take it as proved that primitive man was what we shall 
now term a savage of a very low type, and whom we can well 
picture to ourselves by comparison with many of the existing 
savage races. There is no evidence of any race ever losing 
its natural mechanical contrivances, such as the use of flint 
and steel, spinning, &c., and although nations may have de- 
generated from over civilisation, it is not likely that any race 
of men would ever forget what contributed to their material 
comfort and support. From this argument it follows, says 
Sir John Lubbock, ‘The lowest races of existing savages 
must, always assuming the common origin of man, be af least 
as far advanced as were our ancestors when they spread over 
the earth’s surface.” The history of Primitive Man has been 
conveniently divided into two great periods. The Stone Age 
and the Metal Age. These have been again subdivided into 
I. The Rough Stone Age, or that of the Drift, when the 
mammoth, great cave bear, hairy rhinoceros, and other extinct 
animals existed, when, of course, no metal was in use and 
the stone implements were unpolished. II. The Polished 
Stone Age, or Reindeer Epoch, when the stone implements 
were polished, and vast herds of reindeer roamed the land ; 
and towards the latter end of which domesticated existing 
animals begin to appear. The Metal Age, may be divided 
into—I. The Bronze Age and II. The Iron Age. In the 
first of these bronze (an amalgam of tin and copper) was in 
sole use while stone implements were still in existence; in 
the second iron superseded bronze for tools, &c., while the 
latter was used for ornaments, &c. During the first part of 
the Stone Age man’s life must have been indeed hard and 
savage, his food could have consisted only of roots and fruit ; 
in constant danger from the attacks of enormous and savage 
animals, among which the huge cave lion and the vast and 
savage cave bear were prominent; without weapons to defend 
himself, and forming but a very small minority of existing 
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