210 FOSSIL MEN. 



lignis imposita saxa, probably stone-headed clubs, or 

 stone battle-axes.* Such facts, of which any number 

 are furnished to us by history, show that in any abso- 

 lutely general sense we cannot rationally divide the 

 pre-historic time into ages of Stone and Metal. The 

 only sense in which such classification can be accepted is 

 locally, and even then with some reserve. Admitting, 

 then, a certain local value of the Iron, Bronze, and 

 Stone ages in western Europe, with such modifications 

 as the American and other facts already discussed 

 require, it remains to satisfy ourselves as to the possi- 

 bility of distinguishing separate ages of chipped and 

 polished stone, or Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages, and 

 as to the nature of the line of separation between these 

 supposed periods and the times to which they belong. 

 In America the age of polished and chipped stone, 

 used together, and with some intermixture of copper 

 and bronze, existed unchanged up to the discovery 

 by Columbus. In Europe the Stone age is usually 

 supposed to have given place to that of Bronze almost 

 before the dawn of history, except in certain remote 

 places. If we inquire what were the causes which 

 at so early a date caused the introduction of bronze 

 and iron in northern Europe, the answer is not diffi- 

 cult. It was foreign trade with the more civilized 

 nations inhabiting the Mediterranean nations which 

 had possessed these metals from a still earlier period, 



* " William of Poictiers." A different meaning has been 

 attached to this by some ; but stone weapons were used in 

 Ireland and Scandinavia to quite as late a date. 



