259 



which arises from the fact that in the caves we find no 

 gradual passage of the Pleistocene into the Prehistoric fauna^ 

 bat a sharp line drawn, the few caves which yield traces of 

 the presence of Neolithic man showing that marked and 

 abrupt alteration in the fauna to which I have referred ; if 

 the development of human civilisation in north-western 

 Europe^, of which alone I am speaking, has been a continued 

 and gradual progress of a tribe or tribes of men, more or 

 less closely connected together, and unmarked by anything 

 like a great ethnographical break, ought we not to find an 

 equally gradual change in the fauna ? Can such a gradual 

 change be shown to exist ? Is it not rather a generally 

 noticeable fact that the disappearance of the Pleistocene 

 forms and the incoming of their successors is, as I have 

 already pointed out, apparently marked by a sort of hiatus, 

 which is as yet not very well accounted for, but which may 

 perhaps with some reason be attributed, at any rate in 

 part, to changes in the climate, closely connected with changes 

 which have taken place in the physical geography of this 

 part of the earth ? 



What light, if any, do such discoveries as those which we 

 have been describing throw upon the question of the anti- 

 quity and primitive condition of the human race ? As to 

 man's origin and first appearance on earth science can as yet 

 tell us little or nothing, — can record nothing after all but 

 guesses, more or less plausible. All these discoveries of 

 implements, whether in this or the neighbouring countries of 

 north-western Europe, only give us a glimpse of the early 

 condition of man in this particular quarter of the globe ; and, 

 however, far back in time we may be carried, we must not 

 shut our eyes to the fact that we must go yet further back 

 would we reach the age when the men of the river valleys 

 and caves made their first appearance in the world, for no one, 

 I suppose, would now hold the opinion that this race, which 

 once inhabited Europe, originated in the localities in which 

 their relics are now found : doubtless they were immigrants 

 from some more distant region, only arriving in Europe after 

 a long period of wandering ; like their successors, may we 

 not reasonably think that they formed one of, perhaps, the very 

 earliest of those successive waves of migration, the more 

 recent of which are recorded in traditions and history, 

 migrations westwards from the cradle of the race in the 

 East? 



Whether there ever was a direct point of contact between 

 Palaeolithic and Neolithic man at any given place or time we 

 cannot as yet say. At present all the discoveries made appear 



VOL. XVIII. T 



