v.] PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY. 155 



the Palaeolithic Age, and are never found in the river-drift 

 gravels. Conversely, the Palaeolithic types have never 

 yet been met with in association with those characteristic 

 of the later epoch. 



Again, while the Neolithic implements are remark- 

 ably numerous in Denmark and Sweden, the Palaeolithic 

 types are absolutely unknown there, as well as in 

 Eastern Europe. It is probable, therefore, that the 

 northern part of our Continent was not inhabited by 

 man during the earlier period. 



3. Nor do the types of the Neolithic age ever occur 

 in company with the mammoth, Rhinoceros ticliorinus, 

 and other animals characteristic of the Quaternary fauna, 

 under circumstances which would justify us in regarding 

 them as coeval. 



4. The implements in question were in use before the 

 introduction or discovery of metal. It is a great 

 mistake to suppose that implements of stone were 

 abandoned directly metal was discovered. For certain 

 purposes, as for arrow-heads, stone would be quite as 

 suitable as the more precious substance. Flint flakes, 

 moreover, were so useful, and so easily obtained, that 

 they were occasionally employed even down to a very late 

 period. Even for axes and chisels, the incontestable 

 superiority of metal was counterbalanced for a while by 

 its greater costliness. Captain Cook, indeed, tells us 

 that in Tahiti the implements of stone and bone were in 

 a very few years replaced by those of metal ; a stone 

 hatchet was then, he says, " as rare a thing as an iron 

 one was eight years ago, and a chisel of bone or stone is 

 not to be seen." The rapidity with which the change 

 from stone to metal is effected depends upon the supply 



