Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/77

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PALÆOLITHIC TYPES OF MAN
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ated with it were Acheuléen, or early Moustérien, types. Hence that individual, without straining fair presumptive evidence, might be assigned to the Neanderthal-Spy race. Then the Galley Hill skeleton must be set aside for the present, as it still lies under the cloud of doubt which was raised against the hypothesis that it was contemporary with the deposition of the gravels in which it was found. Objections on various grounds have been raised against nearly all the human remains found in alluvial deposits on the Continent, such as those of Grenelle, Clichy, Truchère, Olmo, Eguisheim, Brux, Brünn, Podbaba, etc.

As fabricators of the coup-de-poing type of implement, these River Drift men roamed along the river valleys and primeval forests of the south of England and Central Europe, which then abounded in subtropical animals and fruits sufficient to supply them with sustenance, without much labour.

It remains to be seen whether the Piltdown specimen of humanity is to be assigned to an earlier date than Chelléen (which was undoubtedly an inter-glacial epoch—the second, according to Professor James Geikie), on anatomical or geological grounds, both of which are at present undecided.

The Chelléen deposits are, of course, much older than the Moustérien epoch—how much older may be estimated by the time it has taken for a subtropical climate to veer round to one of Arctic severity, with a corresponding change in their concomitant faunas.