24 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



of the New and the Old Stone Periods. The implements of the 

 two periods in question are sharply contrasted. Even in the 

 rare instances where the forms of the implements are analogous, 

 a practised observer will readily detect a difference in the work- 

 manship. In the exceptional cases referred to, " the difference is 

 such," as Dr. Evans remarks, " that though possibly a single spe- 

 cimen [of Neolithic age] might pass muster as of Palaeolithic 

 form, yet a group of three or four at once strikes an experienced 

 eye as presenting other characteristics." The implements of the 

 one period are never found commingled with those of the other, 

 nor do the characteristic faunas of the two ages ever occur 

 together in one and the same undisturbed deposit. This remark- 

 able circumstance must be kept in view when we are speculating 

 on the lapse of time that separates the Neolithic from the Palaeo- 

 lithic Age. It will be my endeavour in the sequel to point out 

 what seems to me to have been the cause of that gap or hiatus, 

 but before doing so there are many other lines of evidence which 

 I have yet to indicate ; among these, not the least important is 

 the question of climate. It is evident, indeed, that until we 

 ascertain what kind of climate characterised the Palaeolithic 

 Period, we can form but a vague idea of the conditions under 

 which the men of Canstadt and Cro-Magnon lived. In the 

 two following chapters, therefore, I propose to discuss this ques- 

 tion, taking for my data the mammalia and the land plants and 

 mollusca which are found in those Pleistocene deposits to which 

 Palaeolithic man likewise belongs. 



