IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OP TEE STONE AGE. 129 



of Palaeolithic chipped implements to agricultural popu- 

 lations, and we should expect to find such imple- 

 ments in great numbers in the vicinity of alluvial 

 grounds or near to river valleys, and unmixed with 

 the household utensils and weapons of war and hunt- 

 ing, which might remain in connection with habita- 

 tions or fortresses. Their abundance in the European 

 river gravels gives countenance to the supposition that 

 in Europe, as in America, the earliest pre-historic 

 peoples were agricultural, though there may, no doubt, 

 have been contemporary hunting tribes in the districts 

 less suited for cultivation. 



In connection with these facts, it may be pertinent 

 to inquire whether we have formed any definite con- 

 ceptions of the habits and implements of the dense 

 agricultural populations implied in the narrative of 

 the antediluvian period in Genesis. Had they domes- 

 ticated the horse or ox to plough their fields, or was 

 all done by manual labour, as in America? Is it 

 likely that they possessed metallic tools in sufficient 

 quantity for agricultural use, even after the date, the 

 seventh generation from Adam, assigned to the dis- 

 covery of the metals ? Is it not likely that their agri- 

 culture was carried on principally with primitive stone 

 hoes ? If so, we may expect to find in the river 

 valleys of Western Asia vastly greater quantities o^ 

 Palaeolithic flints than those which the gravels of 

 Europe have afforded, and it would not be wonderful 

 if millions of these rude implements should be re- 

 covered without our meeting with any other evidence 



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