At what precise point of time
during the Post-Pliocene period he first made his appearance is
still a matter of conjecture. Recent researches would render
it probable that the early inhabitants of Britain and Western
Europe were witnesses of the stupendous phenomena of the Glacial
period; but this cannot be said to have been demonstrated. That
Man existed in these regions during the Post-Glacial division
of Post-Pliocene time cannot be doubted for a moment. As to the
physical peculiarities of the ancient races that lived with the
Mammoth and the Woolly Rhinoceros, little is known compared with
what we may some day hope to know. Such information as we have,
however, based principally on the skulls of the Engis, Neanderthal,
Cro-Magnon, and Bruniquel caverns, would lead to the conclusion that
Post-Pliocene Man was in no respect inferior in his organisation
to, or less highly developed than, many existing races. All the
known skulls of this period, with the single exception of the
Neanderthal cranium, are in all respects average and normal in
their characters; and even the 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.
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