But a progressive lowering of the temperature is apparent before this epoch closed. The mammoth and wall-nosed rhinoceros, protected from the cold by their heavy, hairy coats, wandered south-west from their former homes in the north-east. Various species of deer and elk, natives of colder climes, made their appearance; while before these new-comers the faunal types characteristic of warm climates withdrew or succumbed. If primitive man should be classed among these types, lie alone not only survived, but increased in daring, skill, and numbers.
Earliest Social at all drawing upon the sugges tions of fancy, we are able to picture in a general way what were the conditions of human life at this its very outset. Men congregated in bands and formed some sort of communities. This we know, because many of the early remains indicate centres of life, the places of residence not of scattered individuals, but of numbers at the same time. These communities were not migratory to any great degree, but were sedentary. This is shown by the fact that their tools are of the stones found in the immediate vicinity, and not of materials brought from other localities. By the same evidence there was little or no intercommunication between these communities, as there are no signs of exchange of materials or implements.
The position preferred for residence was upon watercourses, indicating that from these or from their valleys proceeded the principal food-supply. This consisted of fish, amphibious animals, wild fruits, edible grasses, and roots.
Negatively, nothing like a charm, amulet, or other religions emblem, and no relics of internment, have been discovered referable to this epoch; therefore it is probable that the sentiment of religion was not yet devel oped, for this finds its earliest and strongest expression in respect for the dead. As no implement suitable for skinning animals or dressing their hides has been found, it is inferred that clothing was unknown—a view to which the mildness of the climate adds probability. On the other hand, even at that early date the love of personal decoration had been evoked. At least Dr. Rigollot maintained that various small heaps of naturally perforated shells, the Coscthopora globulath, which he found in the gravel beds of Amiens, had been strung together and used as ornaments. The
shell is a petrifaction found in the chalk-beds, from which Dr. Rigollot believed the ancient inhabitants collected them.
The conditions of a sparse population, isolated in small sedentary communities, separated by forests harboring ferocious Carnivora in abun dance, against which they had no means of defence, will explain the extremely unprogressive character of this early race. For tens of thou sands of years they appear to have dwelt in the same river-valleys without gaining one step in industrial development. Not until the growing acerb ity of the climate forced them to adopt protection from its rigors and greater activity in the pursuit of food do visible signs of intellectual advancement manifest themselves. Thus, in the remains at Moustier we find scrapers and punches suitable for cleaning and fastening together the skins of animals, with which doubtless those early settlers protected them selves from the cold.
Living upon the rivers, it would seem likely that they had devised some means of water-transportation, perhaps rafts. This is indicated by the fact that many of their implements lie in the gravel-beds which then formed the bottom of the streams, and they must have been dropped in the positions in which they remain by some one moving on the water above, engaged in fishing or collecting floating materials.
Irfribraion (y" Relics of Mis Epoch in race in Europe at this epoch was by no means confined to England and France. Re searches in the oldest quaternary strata have brought to light implements of the same patterns in districts widely asunder. One deposit was found in the gravels of the Rhone near Arles; a number have been unearthed in Italy as far south as Rome, but especially in the valleys of the river Po and Vibrata; the station of San Isidro near Madrid has yielded excellent specimens; the banks of the Meuse and Scheldt in Belgium have been quite rich in such finds; several valleys of Central Germany scarcely less so; while in Switzerland, so fertile a field for later Archccology, not a single station of this epoch has been reported. This is explained by the supposition that even in the comparatively mild temperature of the older Quaternary the mountain-region of Central Europe offered too inhospitable a climate for primitive man.