THE ARRIVAL OF MAN IN EUROPE 



convenient to remember that in northwestern 

 Europe it seems to have very nearly coincided 

 with the Pleistocene period, provided we also 

 bear in mind that the coincidence is purely for- 

 tuitous. The implements of the River-drift men, 

 found in Pleistocene river-beds, are very rude, 

 and imply a social condition at least as low as 

 that of the Australian savages of the present day. 

 " They consist," says Mr. Dawkins, " of the 

 flake the chopper or pebble roughly chipped 

 to an edge on one side ; the hache or oval- 

 pointed implement, intended for use without a 

 handle ; an oval or rounded form with a cutting 

 edge all round, which may have been used in 

 a handle ; a scraper for preparing skins ; and 

 pointed flints used for boring." Man did not 

 then seek for the materials out of which to make 

 these weapons or tools, but " merely fashioned 

 the stones which happened to be within his reach 

 flint, quartzite, or chert in the shallows of 

 the rivers, as they were wanted, throwing them 

 away after they had been used." No pottery of 

 any sort has been found in association with these 

 implements, nor were there at that period any 

 domesticated animals. The River-drift men 

 were evidently no tillers of the ground, neither 

 were they herdsmen or shepherds ; but they 

 gained a precarious subsistence by hunting the 

 great elk and other deer, and contended with 

 packs of hyaenas for the caves which might serve 

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