EARLY MAN IN DORSET. 29 



represent no trace of man has been or ever will be found. 

 The same is true of the Secondary rocks. Together, these 

 two eras may occupy, say, 100,000,000 years. Above these 

 come the Tertiary and Quarternary groups. The lowest of 

 the Tertiaries is known as the eocene, laid down before the 

 Alps and the Himalayas were raised up, and here also no 

 trace of man is found. Next in order come the oHgocene, the 

 miocene, and the pliocene. After this we reach the 

 Quarternary group, which is divided into the pleistocene and 

 recent periods. 



In miocene times the climate here was tropical, in pliocene 

 it was temperate, and in the pleistocene period we have a 

 series of glacial epochs. From time to time remains are found 

 which are supposed to throw the origin of mankind as far 

 back as pliocene days, or even earlier. The " missing link," 

 if ever found, will date from Tertiary times. The flints known 

 as " rostro-carinate " belong to the pliocene period and are 

 believed to be of human workmanship. But the matter is 

 still under discussion and does not specially concern us here. 



The pleistocene period, however, with its glacial epochs 

 coincides with the paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It is 

 admitted that a mere animal never made a tool. Even the 

 highest of the anthropoid apes do not achieve this. When, 

 therefore, we come across flints which have been chipped 

 so as to be made serviceable as tools, and when this chipping 

 cannot be ascribed to the action of inanimate nature, we 

 accept such flint tools as proof of the existence of man. Now, 

 the beds of the pleistocene period abound with these tools, 

 which we describe as belonging to the Old Stone Age, and 

 henceforth we have another scale besides the geological one. 

 The Old Stone is succeeded by the New Stone Age, when 

 flints were polished as well as chipped ; then comes the Bronze 

 Age ; and lastly, the introduction of Iron leads us well into 

 historic times. 



What do we know about these men who made these tools, 

 first of stone and then of metal 1 We have found a few of 

 the skulls of paleolithic man, and these show that he was 



