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 | The Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age.
Stone Age. |
--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Eolithic Epoch. | Chellian Epoch. | Mousterian Epoch.
| | Solutian Epoch.
| | Madelenian Epoch.
--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Mid-Pleistocene Period. | Late Pleistocene Period.
--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
The Pleistocene Period.
--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Climate mild and | Climate becomes much | Arctic climate. Cold
equable. | colder. Great | and dry.
| extremes of heat |
| and cold. |
--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
============================================+=========================
_Animals that have since become extinct._ |The same as in the
| preceding period
The Irish deer, the big-nosed rhinoceros, | with the exception
the mammoth, the straight-tusked elephant,| of the big-nosed
the cave-bear, and the sabre-toothed | rhinoceros and the
_felis_ were survivals of an earlier | sabre-toothed _felis_,
period and were accustomed to a warm | which were extinct.
climate. | All of the animals
| named became extinct at
The small-nosed rhinoceros came from the | the close of this
south and the woolly rhinoceros came | period.
down from the north during this period. |
|
At the close of this period the big-nosed |
rhinoceros and the sabre-toothed _felis_ |
becameextinct. |
--------------------------------------------+-------------------------
_Animals that have since migrated._ |General invasion of
| Arctic animals.
The musk-sheep and the marmot came down |
from the north during this period, stayed |At the close of the
through the next period and then migrated | period they migrated
to the Arctic regions. | to the north.
--------------------------------------------+-------------------------
_Living species._ |The same except that
| those animals that
In addition to those that migrated there | could not stand
were the lion, panther or leopard, lynx, | the intense cold,
wild-cat, spotted hyena, hippopotamus, | migrated south
brown bear, grizzly bear, wolf, fox, stag,| each winter.
roe, urus (the original form of the wild |
cattle), aurochs or European bison, horse,|Arctic fauna
wild boar, beaver, and water rat. Many of | characteristic of this
these animals migrated south in the | period.
winter and returned each spring. |
--------------------------------------------+-------------------------
_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: