this confessedly hazardous discus sion, we may name as the earliest unquestioned relics of human art the flint implements dug from the river drift in England and from the gravel beds of the river Somme in France, already referred to on page 14. The same forms occur, indeed, in many other localities in France, but they have been longest and most successfully studied in the valleys of the Somme and Marne Rivers, and the specimens there found have been taken as types of the whole. In the valley of the Somme the implements occur in gravel-beds, at Abbeville, St. Acheul, and other localities, at a depth of thirty and thirty-five feet and less. They are roughly chipped from the flint nodules occurring in the chalk formations along the valley, and are so numerous that it has been estimated that more than twenty thousand specimens have been obtained within the last thirty years. Indeed, this very abundance has been used as an argument against their human origin. They bear, however, in their unity of form and material, in their evident adaptation to use, and in the signs of hand-work upon them, unmistakable evidence that they were the product of human inge nuity. The type known as that of St. Adieu}, of which we give an illustration I, figs. 4, 5), will be sufficient evidence of this. Natural cleavage alone would never produce an example of this completeness; and it is only one of thousands. Implements of this form are usually six to eight inches long, and of an irregular oval shape, the outline having often been largely determined by the original shape of the nodule of flint. One extremity is generally smaller than the other and more carefully chipped, so as to produce a sharp point or cutting edge. The other extremity is often in the natural state, and was obviously left so as to be conveniently grasped by the hand. Hence, French antiquaries call them coup de goings.
The implements which have been collected at Chelles in the valley of the river Marne have been considered even more rudimentary, and conse quently of older date, than those of the St. Aehenl type; to which, how ever, they bear a generic similarity. They are chipped in large flakes, and are on the average rather smaller. They are not associated with any other form, though varying more or less in size and workmanship. This fact is held to prove that the primitive people who manufactured them knew but this one implement of stone, which probably served them both as tool and as weapon. They were at the very beginning of technical development.
The drift implements in England have been obtained from the valleys of the Thames, the Lark, the Little Ouse, and other streams, principally in the south of England. They bear a general resemblance to those of France, but are less clearly separable into different archaeological horizons; that is, the types of the different epochs appear to be more commingled. The usual forms are flint flakes sometimes showing secondary chipping, pointed or pear-shaped implements having in typical specimens a rounded butt, a sharp edge at the sides, and a pointed cud, and a variety of modi fications of this form into what have been called shoe-shaped, discoidal, oval, and heart-shaped implements. None of them have notches, stems,
or grooves. It has been suggested that many of them were used as hand spades or dibbles in grubbing for esculent roots.
A typical station in the south of France, that of Moustier in the department of Dordogne, furnishes a higher class of implements than the valleys of the north, but still indicating that the device of joining point to shaft was not yet discovered, or at least that the point or stone head received no dressing with special adaptation to this purpose. Hence we include this epoch with those previous as that of simple implements.
At Monstier not only chipped hand-stones are found, but sharpened points (p1. 1, figs. 8, 9), blades for cutting, punches, and especially an abundance of semicircular utensils of different sizes called "scrapers" (fl. fiv. to, if), which are considered typical of this age. Their use is not positively known, but they must have had one of considerable interest to primitive man, as this is a form widely distributed over the earth's surface. Possibly they were used to skin and dress the animals captured in the chase.
The large quantities of flint chips and other d6bris left by the ancient artisans of this early age prove that the manufacture of their simple tools was an industry carried on with energy, and that they fully appre ciated the advantages which even such rudimentary weapons gave them in the struggle for existence.
It is sometimes mentioned as a characteristic of the implements of this period that they are chipped or dressed on one side only, the other presenting the natural cleavage. As the latter is comparatively flat and the former rounded, such specimens are called " turtle-back celts," from some resemblance to the shape of a turtle. This form, however, is also found in relics as late as the Neolithic Period, and therefore is not con clusive as to age.
Environment of Afan during this we have previously observed (p. 24), the climate of Western Europe during the early Quater nary was mild and equable. It was probably so over most of the globe on its land-area, which then was distributed in latitudes lower than at present, while the poles were surrounded by extensive oceans.
This softer temperature favored the comfort of an unprotected animal like man, but it also gave him as contemporaries those formidable Car nivora, the cave bear, the cave and sabre-toothed tiger, and the various Hyenas which we described on page 24. Their remains are found iu the same geologic strata as his simplest tools, and it is evident lie had to con tend with them for the mastery. The African and other species of elephant roamed as far north as the valley of the Thames, and the hippopotamus made its home in the tepid rivers.