_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 the province of the present work. So far as
Post-Pliocene Man is concerned, the chief points which the
palaeontological student has to remember have been elsewhere
summarised 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 _Molluscan_
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
primogenius_), the Woolly Rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_),
the Cave-lion (_Felis speloea_), the Cave-hyaena(_Hyoena speloea),
and the Cave-bear (_Ursus speloeus_).
Pages:
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540