292 THE EE7. J. MAGENS HELLO, M.A., F.G.S., ETC., ON 



•of stopping them. We go from text-book to text-book until it 

 seems hopeless to correct any error that may have gone forth. 

 Only lately the papers and journals have been recording the 

 discovei'y of the grizzly bear in the caverns of Malta. It is true 

 tliat there have been found teeth and fragments of a lower jasv 

 which certainly belonged to a bear, and a bear very like the 

 grizzly bear ; but as a matter of fact no one can tell what species 

 of that animal it was. It is quite hopeless to say exactly what 

 it was, and just because the scientific people who examined it 

 made a suggestion that it was more like the grizzly bear than 

 anything else, that goes forth as an ascertained fact, and no 

 ■doubt it has been used by many who try to draw definite conclu- 

 sions from such a result. 



To turn, then, to the subject immediately before us. Of course 

 the great question is whether the Palaeolithic people, of whom Mr. 

 Mello has spoken, have evolved, on the spot, into the Neolithic 

 people, or whether the explanation of all the phenomena we see 

 is, that the Neolithic races ai-e the new horde which came from 

 the East and displaced the earlier ones. So far as I understand 

 from Mr. Allen Brown's results, he is inclined to think with 

 certain continental authors — as Mr. Mello has said — that the 

 Neolithic are derived by evolution on the spot, so to speak, from 

 the Palwolithic, and that is borne out by a comparison of the 

 implements. It is very difificult from the implpments alone to be 

 ■quite certain, but I believe (and perhaps Mr. Mello will explain) 

 ihat even yet, notwithstanding all the intermediate gradations, 

 thei"e is found one fundamental difference between the stone 

 implements of the Neolithic times and the Palaeolithic. So far as 

 I know, these axe-shaped implements of Neolithic times were 

 ^11 held by the narrow end placed in some kind of handle, 

 whereas amongst the PalfBolithic implements, the pointed end was 

 invai'iably used, while the butt Avas held in the hand. Whether 

 that difference in the two types of implements has been bridged 

 over I do not know. Perhaps Mr. Mello will inform us. I have 

 seen Danish, Russian, Swedish and American examples, but I have 

 never seen anything to bridge over these types. Again, with 

 regard to the state of finish of these implements ; no doubt it is 

 j^erfectly certain from discoveries in caves and other places that 

 the more elaborate types belong, as a rule, to the later periods ; 

 but at the same time it ought to be reraembei'ed that extremely 

 elaborate implements do not always indicate supex'ioi'ity of race. 



