280 MAN'S PLACE IN THE GEOLOGICAL EECOED. 



various stages of relative antiquity. Of course, were im- 

 plements of iron ever found along with remains of mam- 

 moth and mastodon, the scale would "be utterly worthless ; 

 hut when stone tools invariahly accompany the older re- 

 mains, and those of bronze and iron those of younger and 

 younger date, then we feel assured from this concordance of 

 the implement scale with that of the animal that we have 

 hit upon a pretty exact method, so far as Europe at least 

 is concerned;* and it is by both of those modes that man's 

 place in the geological record has been mainly determined. 

 It will be seen that in speaking of implements of stone, 

 bronze, and iron, the geologist is trenching on the field of 

 archaeology, and the archaeologist on that of geology. Both 

 must, in fact, lend their aid in solving the question of 

 man's antiquity ; and whether it be by sepulchral barrows, 

 by shell-mounds the old feasting-stations of our northern 

 ancestors by pile-dwellings in lakes, or by flint implements 

 in river-drifts, much the same kind of reasoning must be 

 employed by both. A lake-dwelling, with implements of 

 stone and bronze, may carry us no further back than the 

 time of the Romans ; while a tree-canoe, hollowed out by 

 fire, and found under twelve or fourteen feet of river-silt, 

 may take us thousands of years before Eome had a founda- 

 tion. The inhabitants of Northern Europe may have lived 

 on shell-fish and been wrapt in skins when the Pharaohs 

 were clothed in fine linen and purple j but when we find 



* Some archaeologists divide the Stone Period into the paleolithic and 

 neolithic stages the former the age of rude stone implements, and when 

 man shared the possession of Europe with the mammoth, the cave-bear, 

 the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct animals ; and the latter 

 the age of polished stone implements, and when man began to domesti- 

 cate the dog, ox, horse, and other existing mammalia. In this way we 

 have four stages of pre-historic time : 1, the Ancient Stone age ; 2, the 

 Newer Stone age ; 3, the Bronze age ; and, 4, the Iron age. For much 

 interesting and well-condensed information on this topic, see Lubbock's 

 1 Pre-historic Times/ 1865. 



