36 SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



workmanship belonging to it, though in a few instances 

 we have also the actual limb-bones, skulls, and jaw-bones 

 of the men themselves, which differ in different periods. 

 It is practically certain that these prehistoric successive 

 periods of humanity do not represent the steps of growth 

 and change of one single race belonging to this part 

 of the world, but that successive races have arrived on 

 the scene of Western Europe from other parts, and it 

 is usually very difficult even to guess where they came 

 from and where they went to ! 



It is convenient to divide the human epoch, the time 

 which has elapsed since man definitely took shape as 

 man — characterized by his large brain, small teeth, upright 

 carriage, and large opposable thumb and still larger and 

 more peculiar non-opposable great toe — into the historic 

 and the prehistoric sections. In this part of the world 

 (Europe) the first use of metals (first of all copper, then 

 bronze, and then iron), as the material for the fabrication 

 of implements and tools of all kinds, occurs just on the 

 line between the historic and the prehistoric sections ; 

 that is to say, between those times of which we know 

 something by tradition and writing, and those earlier 

 times of which we have no record and no tradition, but 

 concerning which we have to make out what we can by 

 searching the refuse heaps and ruins of man's dwelling- 

 places and carefully collecting such of his " works " as have 

 not utterly perished, whilst noting which lie deeper in the 

 ground, which above and which below the others. 



Practically the men of the prehistoric ages in Europe 

 had not the use of metals (though our quasi-historical 

 records go back to a less remote time in many parts of 

 Europe than they do in Greece, Assyria, and Egypt). 

 The prehistoric peoples are spoken of as the men of 

 the Stone Age, because they used stone, chiefly flint, 

 as many savage races do to-day, as the material from 



