III. The Factory System, or the Period of National Economy.
The Pleistocene period is the one that is treated in the first three volumes of this series. It is the period that is frequently designated as the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age in contrast to the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age which belongs to what Professor Dawkins calls the Prehistoric Period.
Professor Dawkins divides that part of the Pleistocene period during which man inhabited the earth as the mid-Pleistocene and the late Pleistocene periods. Monsieur Du Pont, dividing it with respect to the form of animal life most characteristic, gives us the Age of the Mammoth and the Age of the Reindeer. M. de Mortillet, classifying it with reference to the localities which have yielded most materials for study, has made current the terms the Chellian, the Mousterian, the Solutian, and the Madelenian epochs. The following table may serve to indicate in a general way how these various classifications are related. The reader who would like to pursue the question of classification further will find good summaries in the Smithsonian Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1888, p. 604; in the Smithsonian Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1890, p. 649; in Morgan’s Ancient Society, pp. 3-29, and in Dawkins’ British Pleistocene Mammalia.
The Tree-dwellers. | The Early Cave-men. | The Later Cave-men. |
The Age of Fear. | The Age of Combat. | The Age of the Chase. |
The Age of the Mammoth. | The Age of the Reindeer. | |
Period of Extinct Animals. | Period of Migrated Animals. | |
Dawn of the Rough Stone Age. | The Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age. | |
Eolithic Epoch. | Chellian Epoch. | Mousterian Epoch. |
Mid-Pleistocene Period. | Late Pleistocene Period. | |
The Pleistocene Period. | ||
Climate mild and equable. | Climate becomes much colder. Great extremes of heat and cold. | Arctic climate. Cold and dry. |
| Animals that have since become extinct. The Irish deer, the big-nosed rhinoceros, the mammoth, the straight-tusked elephant, the cave-bear, and the sabre-toothed felis were survivals of an earlier period and were accustomed to a warm climate. The small-nosed rhinoceros came from the south and the woolly rhinoceros came down from the north during this period. At the close of this period the big-nosed rhinoceros and the sabre-toothed felis became extinct. | The same as in the preceding period with the exception of the big-nosed rhinoceros and the sabre-toothed felis, which were extinct. All of the animals named became extinct at the close of this period. |
| Animals that have since migrated. The musk-sheep and the marmot came down from the north during this period, stayed through the next period and then migrated to the Arctic regions. | General invasion of Arctic animals. At the close of the period they migrated to the north. |
| Living species. In addition to those that migrated there were the lion, panther or leopard, lynx, wild-cat, spotted hyena, hippopotamus, brown bear, grizzly bear, wolf, fox, stag, roe, urus (the original form of the wild cattle), aurochs or European bison, horse, wild boar, beaver, and water rat. Many of these animals migrated south in the winter and returned each spring. | The same except that those animals that could not stand the intense cold, migrated south each winter. Arctic fauna characteristic of this period. |
Field Trips. In localities where the natural materials needed for the child’s work are near at hand it will be best to gather them immediately before they are to be used. In regions less favorably situated it will undoubtedly be best to plan the work so as to make a few trips serve the purpose. Perhaps the trips most needed to make the lessons of this book yield their full value are the following:
1. To a stream of water to notice:
(a) The wearing and building power of the stream.