X. 











V 



the 



Litis 



are 

 in- 



one 



inee 



lid 

 the 

 oii 



lade 



nee, 

 fin 

 :irto 

 rked 



er in 

 itliic 



l tiie 



lings 



, co- 



ecies 



feff 





i 



* 



an)' 

 ;0 the 



aft* 









Ch. X.] 



CLIMATE OF AGES OF BRONZE AND OF STONE. 



177 



more characteristic of an anterior period, have been found 

 sparingly in this fauna, and another extinct quadruped, the 

 Irish elk or gigantic deer.* The weapons then in use b j man 

 show a rude state of the arts, and complete ignorance of 

 the use of metals. Passing over this intermediate period, 

 which is as yet but vaguely and imperfectly defined, we come 

 to the older stone age, or ' Paiaxdithic Period/ comprising the 

 ancient river-gravels of Amiens and Abbeville in France, and 

 of Salisbury and Bedford in England, and the drift of many 

 other parts of Europe. Here, for the first time in our retro- 

 spect, we encounter the bones of a large number of extinct 

 quadrupeds, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, bear, tiger, and 

 liysena, associated with the remains of living animals and of 



mi T ^ • • i -■ , • -. . _ 



man. 



Nor 



western Europe of unpolished flint implements of a type 

 different from those of the later or Neolithic era, im- 



The gravels 



plying a less advanced state of civilisation, 

 containing such works of art and bones of extinct animals 

 belong to a time when the physical geography was unequi- 

 vocally different from that now 



characterising the 



same 



part of Europe, a discordance which does not hold true of 



The valleys of the 



the more modern 



Neolith 



more ancient of the two periods had not acquired their pre- 

 sent width, depth, and outline. The contemporary cavern 

 deposits, in which similar flint weapons and the bones of the 

 same class of mammalia occur, were also connected with a 



% 



om 



now prevailing. The enormous volume of alluvial matter 

 formed in the channels of the old rivers, the contorted strati- 

 fication of some parts of such alluvium, and the large size 

 of many of the transported stones which it contains, imply a 

 climate which generated much snow and ice in winter, and 

 a mean annual temperature lower than that now found in 

 the same parts of Europe.f The fossil shells also imbedded 

 a the same deposits are all of species now living, and cha- 

 racteristic, with a few exceptions to be 



men 



Northern 



See Mr. Boyd Dawkins' list of mam- 



The general absence 



t For contortions of the drift, see 



ua of the Dordogne Caves, Quart. Antiquity of Man, by the Author, p. 138. 

 ' °uro. of Sci, July, 1866, p. 343. 



VOL. I. 



N 



