We may conclude, therefore, that there is considerable evidence, although not as yet quite convincing, that the early Chellean flint workers arrived in western Europe before the disappearance of the Etruscan rhinoceros and the sabre-tooth tiger. THE PRE-CHELLEAN STATIONS (See Figs. 53 and 56.) The dawn of the Palæolithic Age is indicated in various river-drift stations by the appearance of crude flint _weapons_ as well as _tools_ or _implements_, in addition to the supposed tools of Eolithic times. There is an unmistakable effort to fashion the flint into a definite shape to serve a definite purpose: there can no longer be any question of human handiwork. Thus there gradually arise various _types_ of flints, each of which undergoes its own evolution into a more perfect form. Naturally, the workers at some stations were more adept and inventive than at others. Nevertheless, the primitive stages of invention and of technique were carried from station to station; and thus for the first time we are enabled to establish the archæological age of various stations in western Europe. Only a few stations have been discovered where the Palæolithic men were first fashioning their flints into prototypes of the Chellean and Acheulean forms. With relation to the theory that these primitive flint workers may have entered Europe by way of the northern coast of Africa, we observe that these stations are confined to Spain, southern and northern France, Belgium, and Great Britain. Neither Pre-Chellean nor Chellean stations of unquestioned authenticity have been found in Germany or central Europe, and, so far as present evidence goes, it would appear that the Pre-Chellean culture did not enter Europe directly from the east, or even along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, but rather along the northern coast of Africa,[W] where Chellean culture is recorded in association with mammalian remains belonging to the middle Pleistocene Epoch. The southernmost stations of Chellean culture at present known in Europe are those of Torralba and San Isidro, in central Spain. In the Department of the Gironde is the Chellean station of Marignac, and it is not unlikely that other stations will be discovered in the same region, because the Palæolithic races strongly favored the valleys of the Dordogne and Garonne, but thus far this is the only station known in southern France which represents this period of the dawn of human culture. [Illustration: FIG. 60. Very primitive palæoliths from Piltdown, Sussex, consisting chiefly of tools and points of triangular and oval form, fashioned out of flint nodules split in two and flaked on one side only, with very coarse marginal retouch. After Dawson. Nos. 1 and 2 are nearly one-half actual size; No. 3 nearly one-quarter actual size.]