[341] See G. and A. de Mortillet, Musée préhistorique, Paris, pl. vi. to ix.; J. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed., chap. xxiii., London, 1897.
[342] Frequently these implements have been found, in sufficiently deep beds, beside bones of the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas antiquus), the smooth-skinned, two-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Merckii), the great hippopotamus—that is to say, of animals characteristic of the first interglacial period. As these species are allied to the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus of Africa of the present day, the hypothesis has been propounded that they came from this continent, utilising the numerous isthmuses then existing (between Gibraltar and Morocco, between Sicily, Malta and Tunis, etc.). Man, the maker of the Chellean implements, followed, it is supposed, in their steps. One might argue with equal force that the migration took place in the opposite direction.
[343] Woldrich (after Nehring), Mit. Anthr. Gesell., vol. xi., p. 187, Vienna.
[344] In England it is sometimes designated the “cave period” to distinguish it from the Chellean, called “River-drift” period, but this term is open to objection; thus, for example, in the celebrated Kent cavern there have been found at the bottom implements of the Chellean type identical with certain objects of the River-drift. (See the works already quoted, as well as Windle, Life in Early Britain, p. 26, London, 1897.)
[345] According to G. de Mortillet, Mousterian industry also differs from the Chellean in regard to technique. In the Chellean period what is utilised is the core or nucleus of the stone cut right round on both sides; while in the Mousterian period what are fashioned are the splinters struck off from this core, which are trimmed especially on one face, the inner face remaining smooth and showing the trace of its origin under the form of a “cone” or “bulb of percussion,” which corresponds to a hollow in the block from which the splinter has been dislodged. However, implements recalling at first sight the “knuckle-duster,” but which differ from it by their amygdaloidal form and their straight edges (Saint-Acheul type), are still to be found at this period.
[346] In G. de Morlillet’s classification a yet additional period is inserted between the Mousterian and the Magdalenian. This is the Solutrian, characterised by finely cut heads (spear or arrow?) in the shape of a laurel leaf. But the zone in which these implements are met with is limited to certain regions of the south and west of France only. For many palæethnographers this is a “facies local” of the Magdalenian period.
[347] There may be added to the masterpieces here reproduced the famous representation of the mammoth carved on the tusk of this animal itself by a man of La Madeleine (Dordogne), discovered and described by Lartet; and by Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Brit., p. 105, London, 1880. See Cartailhac, loc. cit., p. 72.
[348] After the second interglacial period the “Great Baltic Glacier” still covered the Scandinavian peninsula, with the exception of its southern part (Gothland), extended over the emerged bottom of the Baltic, over nearly the whole of Finland, and spreading round Gothland invaded the east coast of Denmark and the littoral of Germany to the east of Jutland. After the retreat of this glacier and a series of changes in the surface of the ground (a sinking which brought the Baltic into communication with the North Sea by means of the Strait of Svealand, followed by the upheaval which cut off that communication and made of the Baltic the Ancylus Lake of the geologists), the climate became milder in these parts, and the trees of Central Europe, first the pines, then the oaks and birches, penetrated into Denmark and Gothland, while in the north of Sweden there were two other new glacier movements. (Gerard de Geer, Om Skandinavens Geografiska Utveckling, Stockholm, 1897; G. Andersson, Geschichte Végétat. Schwed., Leipzig, 1896.)
[349] This supposition is invalidated by this fact among others, that, in the neolithic “shell heaps” of Scandinavia no remains of the reindeer are found.
[350] As witnessed by the diggings of Piette at Mas d’Azil, see p. 163.