364 HISTORICAL PALEONTOLOGY. 



regions during the Post-Glacial division of Post-Pliocene time 

 cannot be doubted for a moment. As to the physical peculi- 

 arities of the ancient races that lived with the Mammoth and 

 the Woolly Rhinoceros, little is known compared with what 

 we may some day hope to know. Such information as we 

 have, however, based principally on the skulls of the Engis, 

 Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Bruniquel caverns, would lead 

 to the conclusion that Post-Pliocene Man was in no respect 

 inferior in his organisation to, or less highly developed than, 

 many existing races. All the known skulls of this period, with 

 the single exception of the Neanderthal cranium, are in all 

 respects average and normal in their characters ; and even the 

 Neanderthal skull possessed a cubic capacity at least equal to 

 that of some existing races. The implements of Post-Pliocene 

 Man are exclusively of stone or bone ; and the former are 

 invariably of rude shape and undressed. These " paleolithic " 

 tools (Gr. palaios, ancient ; lithos, stone) point to a very early 

 condition of the arts ; since the men of the earlier portion 

 of the Recent period, though likewise unacquainted with the 

 metals, were in the habit of polishing or dressing the stone 

 implements which they fabricated. 



It is impossible here to enter further into this subject ; and 

 it would be useless to do so without entering as well into a 

 consideration of the human remains of the Recent period a 

 period which lies outside the province of the present work. So 

 far as Post-Pliocene Man is concerned, the chief points which 

 the palaeontological student has to remember have been else- 

 where summarised by the author as follows : 



1. Man unquestionably existed during the later portion of 

 what Sir Charles Lyell has termed the "Post-Pliocene" period. 

 In other words, Man's existence dates back to a time when 

 several remarkable Mammals, previously mentioned, had not 

 yet become extinct ; but he does not date back to a time 

 anterior to the present Molluscan fauna. 



2. The antiquity of the so-called Post-Pliocene period is 

 a matter which must be mainly settled by the evidence of 

 Geology proper, and need not be discussed here. 



3. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted in 

 Western Europe are mostly of large size, the most important 

 being the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), the Woolly Rhino- 

 ceros (Rhinoceros tichorhimis), the Cave-lion (Felis spelcea}, the 

 Cave-hya;na(Z(>'^d! speltza), and the Cave-bear ( Ursus spelaus}. 

 We do not know the causes which led to the extinction of 

 these Mammals ; but we know that hardly any Mammalian 

 species has become extinct during the historical period. 



