72 WILSON 



In the dim ages of that remote period, man lived ; clad in 

 rough skins, he hunted the mammoth and the reindeer, where 

 now are the green fields of Southern England and the vine 

 clad slopes of France ; and contended with the fierce cave bear, 

 the hyena, and the cave lion for the protection and comfort 

 afforded by the rock shelters and caves of Western Europe. 

 Although rude and savage, he was capable of progress, as his 

 implements of later and later date bear testimony. This has 

 given a basis for the division by M. de Mortillet, of the Palae- 

 olithic Age into different periods according to the type of imple- 

 ment, each period having also its characteristic fauna. 



Thus four periods are now generally recognized which are 

 not alwa}/S exact in their application, as a type originating in 

 one, may and often does continue to be employed in those fol- 

 lowing, with the new types which there come into existence. 

 These periods, which have come to be accepted for convenience 

 in the study of the Palaeolithic Age and as approaching as near 

 to the truth as seems possible in any such classification, are as 

 follows : 



The Acheulian, the age of the old river deposits with such 

 associated animals as the elephas antiquus, the mammoth, and 

 the cave bear ; the Mousterian, represented in the upper river 

 deposits and the older caves, with the flourishing of the mam- 

 mouth ; the Solutrian, characterized by the highest development 

 of stone implements, of the abundance of a species of horse, 

 and of the reindeer ; and finally, the Magdalenian, with its 

 decline in the making and use of flint tools, and in its place, 

 the great skill shown in the use of bone, with the remarkable 

 development of art, which is shown by the engraved and painted 

 rocks and engraved ivory and bones, which art seems to have 

 entirely disappeared at the time of the ushering in of the Neo- 

 lithic Age which followed. The fauna was characterized by 

 the abundance of the reindeer and the European bison, the 

 auroch, an animal nearly extinct but still preserved in some o 

 the imperial forests of Russia. 



As the third glacial epoch reached its culmination, Palaeo- 

 lithic man seems to have retreated southward, occupying the 



