416 
DAVIS: ANCIENT FLINT-USERS OF YORKSHIRE. 
to lend dignity to the chief of the tribe, are all that remains of the 
cave men, and of the others there is not so much. 
Flint implements have been divided into t^o groups represent- 
ing an earlier and later people, the former are distinguished as 
Palaiolithic and the latter as Neolithic. In Yorkshire there is no 
positive evidence of man's existence during the Palaeolithic stone 
period. But in the more southerly districts of England, numerous 
flints have been obtained fi'om the river gravels at depths varying 
from 8 to 20 feet, which are of very great age, as compared with the 
Neolithic remains of Yorkshire. The earliest implements are usually 
of large size, and generally more or less abraded by the action of 
water, more or less club-shaped in form, rudely worked, often covered 
with an ocherous coating in the lowest or oldest beds, and exhibiting 
a lustrous surface when obtained from the strata at a higher level. 
The older and larger Pakeolithic implements were probably held in 
the hand, as one would now hold a heavy stone for smashing."* 
The rounded blunt end might be used as a hammer, whilst by 
reversing the hold on the implement, the pointed end could be used 
as a weapon against the wild animals or other foes. In the higher 
strata the implements found are smaller, and appear to be adapted " 
for attachment to sticks sq. so to form spears or javelins. The later 
Palaeolithic men were capable of making much finer and superior 
objects to their predecessors. They had probably acquired a know- 
ledge of dressing skins, and clothed themselves to some extent. They 
formed large colonies on the banks of the rivers, and their implements 
are found in large numbers near the course of the stream. This 
country was then united with the Continent of Europe, and a great 
part of the English Channel and the German Ocean were above the 
sea, and clothed with great forests, in which the mammoth, rhinoceros, 
hippopotamus, the horse, bison, reindeer, and the lion, bear, and 
other animals travelled and crossed to this country ; their remains are 
found associated with the implements of men in the southern counties. 
Besides the old river gravel remains, there are others of 
Palaeolithic man which have been found in caves. The oldest flint 
implements found in caves in Yorkshire, are those from the Victoria 
♦ W- O. Smith. Trans, of the Essex Field Club. Vol. iii., p. 123. 
