378 HISTORICAL PALEONTOLOGY. 



Neanderthal skull possessed a cubic capacity at least equal to 

 that of some existing races. The implements of Post-Pliocene 

 Man are exclusively of stone or bone; and the former are 

 invariably of rude shape and undressed. These " palaeolithic " 

 tools (Gr. palaios, ancient; lithos, stone) point to a very early 

 condition of the arts ; since the men of the earlier portion 

 of the Recent period, though likewise unacquainted with the 

 metals, were in the habit of polishing or dressing the stone 

 implements which they fabricated. 



It is impossible here to enter further into this subject; and 

 it would be useless to do so without entering as well into a 

 consideration of the human remains of the Recent period a 

 period which lies outside of the province of the present work. So 

 far as Post-Pliocene Man is concerned, the chief points which 

 the palseontological student has to remember have been else- 

 where summarized by the author as follows : 



1. Man unquestionably existed during the later portion of 

 what Sir Charles Lyell has termed the " Post-Pliocene " period. 

 In other words, Man's existence dates back to a time when 

 several remarkable Mammals, previously mentioned, had not 

 yet become extinct ; but he does not date back to a time 

 anterior to the present Mollusc an fauna. 



2. The antiquity of the so-called Post-Pliocene period is 

 a matter which must be mainly settled by the evidence of 

 Geology proper, and need not be discussed here. 



3. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted in 

 Western Europe are mostly of large size, the most important 

 being the Mammoth (Elephas priniigenius}, the Woolly Rhino- 

 ceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus}, the Cave-lion (Felis spelcea}, the 

 Cave-hyaena (Hycena sj>elaa),B.nd the Cave-bear (Ursusspelcuus). 

 We do not know the cause which led to the extinction of 

 these Mammals ; but we know that hardly any Mammalian 

 species has become extinct during the historical period. 



4. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted are re- 

 ferable in many cases to species which presumably required a 

 very different climate to that now prevailing in Western Europe. 

 How long a period, however, has been consumed in the bring- 

 ing about of the climatic changes thus indicated, we have no 

 means of calculating with any approach to accuracy. 



5. Some of the deposits in which the remains of man have 

 been found associated with the bones of extinct Mammals, are 

 such as to show incontestable that great changes in the phy- 

 sical geography and surface-configuration of Western Europe 



