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caves where these occur, or under temporary screens 

 of leaves and branches where caverns do not exist, 

 savage men can leave but slender traces of their pre- 

 sence — a dropt tool or the fragment of a skeleton 

 being for the most part the only evidence of their ex- 

 istence. It is long before he becomes acquainted with 

 the use of the metals, and even when he has learned 

 their value, the softer and more easily worked come 

 first, the harder and most difficult of reduction from 

 their ores come latest. It is in this way that archae- 

 ologists speak of the ages of stone, bronze, and iron — 

 the use of these materials marking the comparative 

 stages of civilisation, and forming a rude scale of time 

 whereby to judge of the relative antiquity of a people. 

 Of course this scale must be applied to the same 

 people and within the same country, for one race may 

 be working iron while another is still employing stone, 

 just as at the present day the South Sea Islander 

 polishes his stone chisel or hatchet, while the in- 

 habitants of Europe are fabricating their implements 

 and machinery of iron. But when restricted to the 

 same people, and applied judiciously, this chronological 

 scale of stone, bronze, and iron, gives a fair approxi- 

 mation to relative antiquity, and as such may be safely 

 relied upon. 



Applying it to Western Europe, we pass from the 

 sculptured monoliths, sepulchral barrows, and lake- 



