162 THE EARLIEST MEN 



implements than those they constructed from 

 sticks and bones and stones. 



This Stone Age may, in many if not most parts 

 of the world, be divided, roughly enough, into 

 two periods : an earlier or Palaeolithic, and a later 

 or Neolithic, according to the character of the 

 implements made. The former may have been 

 preceded by an Eolithic Period ; it merged into 

 the latter, in some places at least, by a Mesolithic 

 Period. At any rate at the end of the Stone Period 

 man came into the knowledge of how to smelt and 

 use metals, and the Metallic Age commenced. 

 After a brief Copper (or ^neolithic) Period, 

 which seems to have existed in many if not in most 

 places, a great manufacture of bronze, which is an 

 alloy of copper (ninety per cent) and tin (ten per 

 cent.) came into being, and this is the character- 

 istic material out of which implements were made 

 in the age named after it the Bronze Age. 



As far as our present knowledge teaches us, and 

 it is in the last degree improbable that facts will 

 ever arise to disturb the conclusion, every race on 

 this earth has at some time or another passed 

 through a Stone Age, an era or phase of their 

 civilization during which they were unacquainted 

 with the use of metals. It is a little ambiguous to 

 use the term " Stone Age," since that would seem 

 to imply that no implements other than those made 

 of stone were in use. Of course this is not the case, 

 for man availed himself of shell, horn, and wood, 

 as well as stone at this period. If we think of it as a 

 non-metallic age, we shall clarify our conception. 



After having passed through this stage of 



