132 
PrinuEval Man in the Valle // of the Lea. 
periods, even down to Neolithic times. No doubt the fossil 
bones, if a good series could be obtained, would show a 
succession of, or possibly different groups of, animals in the 
different deposits; but the bones, antlers, and teeth met with 
by me are at present insufficient to define any such groups 
with distinctness. 
The day will come when we shall know much more of 
Palaeolithic men than we know now. At present we only 
know that such men once existed, and made weapons and 
tools of stone during long periods of time. How or where 
they first appeared as human creatures we can only guess. 
When we know more we shall modify our use of such terms 
as “River Drift Men,” “Cave Men,” &c., and we shall pro¬ 
bably be able to mark out more or less distinctly a succession 
of men, a succession of geological events, and a distinct 
succession of progressive steps in the men from the lowest 
savage to the barbarian. Some of our ignorance is undoubt¬ 
edly caused by the undue attention which has been bestowed 
on the collection of ornate implements, and to the employment 
of gravel-diggers for their collection. No greater mistake can 
be made than the mere getting together of the more highly- 
finished and perfect implements. We only learn from them 
that certain makers—at first few and far between, common 
at last—acquired extraordinary skill in the manufacture of 
stone tools and weapons. For one perfect example, twenty 
have their points, butts, or edges injured either by peaceful 
or warlike work. Collectors will not put the damaged ex¬ 
amples and failures in their “cabinets”; but every damage 
tells some story of the use of the implement, and throws 
some light on the character of the being who made and used it. 
Implements could not have been made without fabricating- 
tools—without punches, hammer-stones, and anvils ; where 
the ordinary implements are these latter things also are. 
Implements such as are seen in museums are only fit for 
moderately rough work; very rough work was sometimes 
done, but rough and massive stones artificially worked are 
seldom seen in collections. 
The Valley of the Thames has yielded me between 400 and 
