14 A MILLION YEARS OF CHILDHOOD 



warm " interglacial " period. The animals whose 

 bones mingle with his are of the type that love a 

 warm climate — warmer than ours to-day — and he 

 probably wandered naked, in simple family groups, 

 without homes of any kind, over southern and central 

 Europe. The second ice-period came slowly on, and 

 the men of Europe were now intelligent enough to 

 meet it, instead of simply retreating to Africa. We 

 find their remains in rock-shelters and caves. They 

 have now "homes," " hearths," and a sort of clan- 

 life. 



A homely illustration may be given of this im- 

 portant effect of man's environment. Call to mind 

 a large park or pleasant countryside on a Sunday 

 afternoon in summer, when thousands of people are 

 scattered, generally in couples or family groups, over 

 a broad district. Then suppose that a sharp shower 

 of rain comes on. At once the couples and little 

 family groups are compelled to flock together, in 

 crowds, under every available shelter. We may even, 

 without pressing the analogy too far, notice how 

 people who, had the rain not come on, would not 

 have dreamed of speaking to each other, now talk 

 freely under their common shelters. So the Nean- 

 derthal men were swept together by the Ice Age into 

 the caves of southern Europe, to shelter from the 

 inclement conditions, and the development of speech 

 and rude social organization would naturally follow. 

 " River drift man " had become " Cave man." Social 

 life had begun. And from that point onward, in our 

 prehistoric records, man makes faster progress. 



But progress was still slow as compared with 

 modern times. It would take a long time to develop 

 articulate speech ; and the struggle with frost-bound 



