In Southern Europe and the Southern States of North America the glacial epoch had little effect, so that man’s age upon the earth in those districts will be better calculated than it can ever be here or in France and Belgium; and it will not be surprising if we learn before long that man lived in the districts surrounding the Mediterranean Sea in early Pleiocene times. This sea, it must be recollected, was almost dried up during the early and middle Pleistocene periods, and there was no communication between it and the Atlantic Ocean, so that Europe was connected both on the east and west with Africa, and was also one continuous continent with Asia, there being then no Black Sea and no Caspian Sea. The probability, therefore, is that man first became a rational being, parting with his ape-like characteristics, somewhere in Southern Asia or Northern Africa, or, more probably still, in the now submerged continent of Lemuria, which once joined China, India, and Africa in one continental system; after which he emigrated in different directions, finding his way north-westwards over the European continent as far as the very limit of the Franco-British continental system. At what period man first existed in the districts around the Mexican Gulf it is at present impossible to say; but the skull found in the Mississippi beds is calculated to be at least 50,000 years old, and by some the date is fixed at 100,000 years, which would carry us back to middle Pleistocene times at least. Man, therefore, most probably existed in Europe long before he had made his appearance in the new world, although it is quite possible that further investigation may lead to the discovery of a still more ancient stock than that to which the Mississippi skull belonged. How long a time elapsed between the first appearance of Palæolithic man in Northern Europe, and the subsequent advent of Neolithic man, it is at present impossible to say with any degree of certainty; but the interval must have been of enormous length, for we find no traces of polished stone implements until the very close of the Pleistocene era during the last Franco-British continental system. At this period man had become much more civilised than his ancestors of the Palæolithic age; his implements were more ornamental and better fitted for the purposes for which they were intended; his mode of life had become more settled; and he had developed primitive industries. In the ancient “hut circles” found at Standlake and at Fisherton, near Salisbury, have been found instruments used for spinning and weaving, which date back to Neolithic times, also fragments of pottery and stones used for grinding corn, side by side with the remains of domestic animals. From this we conclude that Neolithic man was at this time a companion of domestic animals, a keeper of flocks and herds, and an agriculturalist. He very soon became, in addition to this, a miner, as is evident from