THE EARLIEST MEN 163 



development most races arrived, by means which 

 cannot here be discussed, at a knowledge of the 

 use of metals, and in some, perhaps in many in- 

 stances, the metal of which they made discovery 

 was copper, and of copper, at any rate in certain 

 parts of the world, we find the earliest metallic 

 implements made. But the manufacture of stone 

 implements did not suddenly come to an end : it 

 went on side by side with the limited copper in- 

 dustry. To this period of transition, when there was 

 an overlap between the two forms of material, is 

 given the name of the ^neolithic Period. This 

 Period, wherever it occurred, was probably one of 

 short duration, for it was soon discovered that the 

 mixture of ten per cent, of tin with the copper 

 produced a much harder and more useful metal, 

 the mixture which we call bronze. It is possible 

 that metal first came under the notice of some 

 nations in the shape of bronze, that being brought 

 to their knowledge by travellers, and this would 

 account for the fact that there was no Copper 

 Period in that particular area. 



Throughout Europe, though not, as was the 

 case with stone, throughout the world, everywhere 

 there has been a Bronze Age preceding the dis- 

 covery of iron, the dominant metal of the age in 

 which we ourselves live. We have seen that a race 

 might have escaped a Copper Age by having the 

 more perfect metal bronze introduced to them by 

 travellers, whilst they were still in their Stone Age. 

 In the same manner within historic times tribes 

 have been discovered, unacquainted with the use 

 of metal still in the Stone Age to whom metal, 



