Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/329

Rh made of flint, and mostly of the type known in France as the coup-de-poing. On the other hand, the relics of the Cavemen are so numerous, varied, and suggestive, that the progressive march of their owners to a higher state of culture can be pictorially portrayed by the slow accretions which time and experience have made to the development of their mechanical tools.

Concurrent with these evolutionary improvements in the social conditions and resources of the Palæolithic people there were marked changes in the environment physical, geological, and climatal which prove that there was a vast interval of time between the River-drift men and the later Cavemen of France. When Neolithic tribes first appeared in Europe, the physical causes which were slowly affecting the distribution of land and water had already moulded the European continent to about the same limits as it now possesses, one marked change being that the British Isles were no longer part of it. This indicates a short chronological range for Neolithic civilisation in comparison with that for the Palæolithic, as suggested by the time that has rolled past since the high river-gravels were deposited and the valleys excavated to their present levels. It is, however, the striking contrast between the ways, works, and methods of living of the two peoples which has been chiefly adduced as the principal argument in support of the theory that their respective civilisations had no evolutionary connection. But it does not follow from the disparity of the relics, however great, that the two races had not set eyes on each other. What better example could be instanced than the Red Indians and modern Americans, whose civilisations are so different that, if estimated by their respective implements, weapons, tools, and ornaments, they might be said to be separated by a long interval of time ; and yet they have lived together for centuries. M. Gabriel de Mortillet, in bringing his system of classification before the members of the International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric archæology held at Brussels in 1872, thus expresses his views :

"Entre les diverses époques paléolithiques, on suit le développement regulier et logique de l'industrie ; on en trouve des transitions et des passages.