ments have been described in this chapter were very widely
dispersed over the earth, and everything indicates that they were far
removed from us in time. The similarity in type of implements shows
that, wherever found, they were the same people, in the same low savage
state of culture--"Alike in the somber forests of oak and pine in Great
Britain, and when surrounded by the luxuriant vegetation of the Indian
jungle."<43>

We have yet two important points to consider. The first is, what race of
men were these river tribes? and second, when did they arrive in Europe?
Did they precede the glacial cold? did they make their appearance during
a warm interglacial period? or was it not until the final retreat of the
glaciers that they first wandered into Europe? These questions are
far from settled; yet they have been the object of a great amount of
painstaking research.

To determine the first point, it is necessary that anatomists have
skeletons of the men of this age, to make a careful study of them. But
for a great many reasons, portions of the human skeleton are very rarely
found in such circumstances that we are sure they date back to the
Paleolithic Age, and especially is this true of the men of the River
Drift. In a few instances fragmentary portions have been found.

M. Quatrefages, of France, who is certainly a very high authority on
these points, thinks that the hunter tribes of the River Drift belonged
to the Canstadt race--"so named from the village of Canstadt, in
Germany, near which a fossil skull was discovered in 1700, and which
appears to be closely allied to the Neanderthal skull, discovered near
Dusseldorf in 1857, and about which so much has been written."<44>
Quatrefages supposes that this type of man is still to be found
in certain Australian tribes. These are not mere guesses, but are
conclusions drawn from careful study by eminent European scholars.<45>

It is well known that a competent naturalist needs but a single fossil
bone to describe the animal itself, and tell us its habits. So also
anthropologists need but fragments of the human skeleton, especially
of the skull, to describe characteristics of the race to which the
individual belonged.

Illustration of Neanderthal Man.-----------

This cut, though an ideal restoration, is a restoration made in
accordance with the results of careful study of fragmentary skulls found
in various localities in Europe. The head and the face present a savage