Finally, a few words must be said as to the occurrence of the remains of Man in Post-Pliocene deposits.  That Man existed in Western Europe and in Britain during the Post-Pliocene period, is placed beyond a doubt by the occurrence of his bones in deposits of this age, along with the much more frequent occurrence of implements of human manufacture.  At what precise point of time during the Post-Pliocene period he first made his appearance is still a matter of conjecture.  Recent researches would render it probable that the early inhabitants of Britain and Western Europe were witnesses of the stupendous phenomena of the Glacial period; but this cannot be said to have been demonstrated.  That Man existed in these regions during the Post-Glacial division of Post-Pliocene time cannot be doubted for a moment.  As to the physical peculiarities of the ancient races that lived with the Mammoth and the Woolly Rhinoceros, little is known compared with what we may some day hope to know.  Such information as we have, however, based principally on the skulls of the Engis, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Bruniquel caverns, would lead to the conclusion that Post-Pliocene Man was in no respect inferior in his organisation to, or less highly developed than, many existing races.  All the known skulls of this period, with the single exception of the Neanderthal cranium, are in all respects average and normal in their characters; and even the Neanderthal skull possessed a cubic capacity at least equal to that of some existing races.  The implements of Post-Pliocene Man are exclusively of stone or bone; and the former are invariably of rude shape and undressed.  These “palaeolithic” tools (Gr. palaios; ancient; lithos, stone) point to a very early condition of the arts; since the men of the earlier portion of the Recent period, though likewise unacquainted with the metals, were in the habit of polishing or dressing the stone implements which they fabricated.

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 palaeontological 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 speloea), the Cave-hyaena(Hyoena speloea), and the Cave-bear (Ursus speloeus_).  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.