As the northern hemisphere divided into climatic
zones these physical characters were bound to develop. The men
who went southward developed, especially when fully exposed to
the sun on open plains, the layer of black pigment which marks
the negroid type. There is good reason, as we shall see to think
that man did not yet wear clothing, though he had a fairly
conspicuous, if dwindling, coat of hair. On the other hand the
men who lingered further north, in South-western Asia and North
Africa, would lose what pigment they had, and develop the lighter
characters of the northerner. It has been noticed that even a
year in the arctic circle has a tendency to make the eyes of
explorers light blue. We may look for the genesis of the
vigorous, light-complexioned races along the fringe of the great
ice-sheet. It must be remembered that when the limit of the
ice-sheet was in Central Germany and Belgium, the climate even of
North Africa would be very much more temperate than it is to-day.
As the ice-sheet melted, the men who were adapted to living in
the temperate zone to the south of it penetrated into Europe, and
the long story of the Old Stone Age opened.
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