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 they slept in trees and lived on raw flesh or fruit, or dug for roots with crooked branches. After a long while, probably thousands of years, the climate got gradually colder and great sheets of ice covered all Northern Europe. Then these first men either died out or went away southwards. Again thousands of years passed, and the west end of Europe got freed of ice and sank several hundred feet, and the sea flooded over the lower parts. So Britain became an island or a group of islands.

Then the second race of men came, perhaps in some kind of boats made of skins stretched over bent poles. About this race we do know something. They were jolly, cunning, dark little fellows with long black hair. At first they lived high up on the hills, so that they could see their enemies from a distance. They could cook food, they dug out caves to live in, they made arrows and axes of sharp stones, and so stood a very fair chance of killing the wild beasts. Their brains, though perhaps small compared to ours, were worth all the strength of all the beasts that ever howled at night. No doubt they had still something of the beast in them; they could run very swiftly; could climb trees like monkeys; could smell their enemies and their prey far off. They grew up early and died young. Most of their children died in infancy. They clothed themselves in skins, and at first lived entirely by hunting and fishing. Their whole time was devoted to getting food for themselves and their families. But just think what a lot of things they had to make for themselves. How long it must have taken to polish a piece of flint until it was sharp enough to cut down a tree or to cut up a tough old wolf! How long to make a fish-hook or a needle of bone! How clever and hard-working these men must have been!