It was a time of temperate,
if not genial, climate. The elephant (an extinct type), the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the hyaena, and many other forms of
animal life that have since retired southward, were neighbours of
the first human inhabitant of Europe. Unfortunately, we have only
one bone of this primitive race, the jaw found at Mauer in 1907,
but its massive size and chinless contour suggest a being midway
between the Java man and the Neanderthal race. His culture
confirms the supposition. There is at this stage no clear trace
of fire, clothing, arrows, hefted weapons, spears, or social
life. As the implements are generally found on old river-banks or
the open soil, not in caves, we seem to see a squat and powerful
race wandering, homeless and unclad, by the streams and broad,
marshy rivers of the time. The Thames and the Seine had not yet
scooped out the valleys on the slopes of which London and Paris
are built.
This period seems, from the vast number of stone implements
referred to it, to have lasted a considerable time. There is a
risk in venturing to give figures, but it may be said that few
authorities would estimate it at less than a hundred thousand
years.
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