270 THE EEV. J. MAGENS MELLO, M.A., F.G.S., ETC., ON 



The men of Pleistocene times were, as far as we can judge, 

 not very fai- advanced in culture : in fact, their civilization 

 was that of the savage tribes of Australia, and some other 

 countries at the present day. The only implements and 

 weapons which they possessed, appear to have been made 

 out of stone, flint being the most common material ; rude 

 in the extreme were these at the beginning, but as time 

 went on there are evidences of improvement and differentia- 

 tion, the roughly chipped flint being replaced or sapple- 

 mented by others elaborately and skilfully fashioned ; these 

 Avere themselves towards the close of the Pleistocene age in 

 a large measure displaced by others made of bone, or of the 

 antlers of the reindeer, some of these being carved into 

 representations of animals, whilst engravings were at the 

 same period made on various materials which show that 

 these early men were endowed with artistic talent of a high 

 character, and very remarkable powers of observation. It 

 is to be specially noted that none of the stone implements 

 were polished or ground, but simply broken and chipped into 

 shape. No metal either, of any sort, seems to have been 

 known to the men of those days in this part of the world. 

 From the character of the implements chiefly in use the age 

 has been called the Palaeolithic or old stone age. 



These Palseolithic men seem to have been nomads, hunters, 

 and fishermen, who followed the courses of the rivers and 

 streams, and penetrated the forests in pursuit of game, from 

 time to time making their home in caves, or under sheltering 

 rocks, where they have left behind them the traces of their 

 former presence, buried, together with the bones of the 

 animals, in the accumulations of gravel or soil which have 

 formed during the long ages which have elapsed since they 

 lived. 



During the Pleistocene age, which must have been a 

 greatly protracted one, the climate, at first temperate, 

 became gradually colder, and with the increasing cold the 

 a^'ctic mammalia made their appearance ; the prevailing 

 conditions seem to have been severe winters, and correspond- 

 ingly hot summers. During all this time man was passing 

 through slow stages of culture, but never emerged from his 

 wandering existence as a hunter and fisherman. He was 

 jiossessed of no domestic animals, not even the dog ; he was 

 not acquainted with the art of making pottery, and he did 

 not as a general rale bury his dead. 



Now a time came when the conditions which prevailed 



