THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 399 



into existence the negroid, the Neander, and probably, 

 at a more distant spot, also the highly developed 

 Cromagnards. The origin of the really primitive race of 

 man is thrown back in time by these facts to a still more 

 remote period, in fact, to -an earlier geologic epoch. And 

 it is to be noted over and above these facts that we have no 

 indication as to where the much later race, the Neolithic 

 Men, came from, nor who were their contemporaries out- 

 side the European area ; nor again do we know where 

 the historic races who succeeded the Neolithic Men 

 took their origin. When other regions of the earth 

 have been examined as carefully as Western Europe 

 has been, we shall no longer be in such complete 

 darkness. 



When one ventures to speculate as to the story of 

 the earliest men in Europe, one can but feel, even after 

 handling the specimens and carefully following the ex- 

 cavations, how small and fragmentary and difficult to 

 interpret is the evidence at present brought to light. And 

 yet there the evidence is, gathered with the utmost care 

 and intelligent method, discussed and interpreted by men 

 of rare knowledge and experience, who, after long 

 comparison of contending opinions and the discovery of 

 an ever-increasing body of fact, have arrived at a definite 

 certainty as to the sequence of arts, races, animals, and 

 climates which I have given above, and is again sum- 

 marised in the tabular statement on page 384 bis. 



Hereafter these conclusions will be modified and 

 extended by excavations in other parts of the world, 

 at present untouched. The one point upon which the 

 best authorities will not commit themselves is the exact, 

 or even approximately exact, number of thousands of 

 years which these events have occupied. The whole 

 story, so far as it is at present worked out, is a marvellous 

 result of patient research and scientific reasoning. Some 



