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 palæontological 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 spelœa), the Cave-hyæna(Hyœna spelœa), and the Cave-bear (Ursus spelœus). We do not know the causes which led to the extinction of these Mammals; but we know that hardly any Mammalian species has become extinct during the historical period.
4. The extinct Mammals with which man coexisted are referable in many cases to species which presumably required a very different climate to that now prevailing in Western Europe. How long a period, however, has been consumed in the bringing about of the climatic changes thus indicated, we have no means of calculating with any approach to accuracy.
5. Some of the deposits in which the remains of man have been found associated with the bones of extinct Mammals, are such as to show incontestably that great changes in the physical geography and surface-configuration of Western Europe have taken place since the period of their accumulation. We have, however, no means at present of judging of the lapse of time thus indicated except by analogies and comparisons which may be disputed.
6. The human implements which are associated with the remains of extinct Mammals, themselves bear evidence of an exceedingly barbarous condition of the human species. Post-Pliocene or "Palæolithic" Man was clearly unacquainted with the use of any of the metals. Not only so, but the workmanship of these ancient races was much inferior to that of the later tribes, who were also ignorant of the metals, and who also used nothing but weapons and tools of stone, bone, &c.
7. Lastly, it is only with the human remains of the Post-Pliocene period that the palæontologist proper has to deal. When we enter the "Recent" period, in which the remains of Man are associated with those of existing species of Mammals, we pass out of the region of pure palæontology into the domain of the Archæologist and the Ethnologist.
LITERATURE.
The following are some of the principal works and memoirs to which the student may refer for information as to the Post-Pliocene deposits and the remains which they contain, as well as to the primitive races of mankind:—