Part V. Sect. ui. § 2.) RECENT OR HUMAN PERIOD. < 907 
The list of mammals, &c., inhabiting Europe during Neolithic 
is distinguished from that of Paleolithic time by the absence of the 
mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and other extinct types, which appear 
to have meanwhile died out in Hurope. The only form now extinct 
which appears to have survived into Neolithic time was the Irish 
elk. The general assemblage of animals was probably much what it 
has been during the period of history, but with a few forms which have 
disappeared from most of Europe either within or shortly before the 
historic period, such as the reindeer, ell, urus, grizzly bear, brown bear, 
wolf, wild boar, and beaver. But besides these wild animals there are 
remains of domesticated forms introduced by the race which sup- 
planted the Paleolithic tribes. These are the dog, horse, sheep, goat, 
shorthorn, and hog. It is noteworthy that these domestic forms 
were not parts of the indigenous fauna of Europe. They appear at 
once in the Neolithic deposits, leading to the inference that they were 
introduced by the human tribes which now migrated, probably from 
Central Asia, into the European continent. ‘These tribes were like- 
wise acquainted with agriculture, for seyeral kinds of grain, as well 
as seeds of fruits, have been found in their lake-dwellings; and the 
deduction has been drawn from these remains that the plants must 
have been brought from southern Europe or Asia. The arts of spin- 
ning, weaving, and pottery-making were also known to these people. 
Human skeletons and bones belonging to this age have been met 
with abundantly in barrows and peat-mosses, and indicate that Neo- 
lithic man was of small stature, with a long or oval skull. 
The history of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe is told in 
great fulness, but belongs more fittingly to the domain of the arche- 
ologist, who claims as his proper field of research the history of man 
upon the globe. The remains from which the record of these ages 
is compiled are objects of human manufacture, graves, cairns, sculp- 
tured stones, &c., and their relative dates have in most cases to be 
decided, not upon geological, but upon archeological grounds. 
When the sequence of human relics can be shown by the order in 
which they have been successively entombed, the inquiry is strictly 
geological, and the reasoning is as logical and trustworthy as in the 
ease of any other kind of fossils. Where, on the other hand, as 
so often happens, the question of antiquity has to be decided solely 
by relative finish and artistic character of workmanship, it must be 
left to the experienced antiquary. 
§ 2. Local Development. 
A few examples of the nature of the deposits of the Paleolithic and 
Neolithic series will suffice to show their general nature. 
Britain.—Paleolithic deposits are absent from the north of England 
and from Scotland. They occur in the south of England, and notably 
in the valley of the Thames. In that district a series of brick-earths 
with intercalated bands of river-gravel, having a united thickness of more 
