Ruth Finnamon, age 12, of Fredericton,N.B „ for her question:

What was the Stone Age?

You started school in first grade or maybe in kindergarten. Each year you went on to a higher grade in which you learned more than you knew before. The long story of mankind is rather like a grade school. He learned what he knows bit by bit and, especially at first, he learned very slowly. Each grade lasted for countless generations.

Our remote ancestors of the Stone Age were, we might say, in the kindergarten of history. They were learning how to make tools, toys and weapons of bone, wood, ivory and especially of stone • which is why we call this period the Stone Age. They dial. not learn to use metals until the first or second grade.

We cannot set a date to the Stone Age because some groups of people were ahead of others. In Europe and Asia, man's kindergarten days seem to have ended during the Ice Age, perhaps 50,000 years ago. In North America, the Indians were reaching the end of their Stone Age when the white men arrived. Certain tribes of Africa and Australia are still enjoying the kindergarten days of their Stone Age.

Early or late, mankind seems to follow certain patterns as he struggles through his lessons. At first, he is a wanderer with no fixed abode. Maybe he shelters in caves, but he does not build a house. He hunts wild game and he forages for fruit, nuts and vegetables, He does not farm.

Sooner or later, he discovers how to control and use fire. Cooking begins and sticks are hardened in the embers to make weapons. The human family gathers around a campfire and the dog becomes a camp follower. This is the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age period of history.

Mankind, however, is very curious and never satisfied with what he knows. He discovers more things and enters his Neolithic, or New Stone Age.

 A settled life grows up around the camp fire. The human family builds a home. The huntsman turns herdsman, penning up animals so that they are there when he needs them. The foragers turn farmers, planting seeds so that fruit and vegetables can be harvested.. The settled life leaves more free time ‑ time to improve weapons, make pottery, discover weaving. There is now time, too, for thought and artwork. Neolithic man is usually an artist. In Europe, Asia and North Africa he left amazingly beautiful drawings on the walls of caves.

Altogether, the New Stone Age is a full and interesting period of man's history. It is dust as interesting as you found your first grade studies. The New Stone Age usually ends with a happy accident. Certain ores get mixed together in the hearth. They melt together and when the embers cool, a lump of hard metal is found in the ashes. This interests man­ the‑curious and he soon learns to smelt metal to make hard tools and weapons. The first metal he usually makes is bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. He does not know it, but this is graduation day. His Stone Age is over and his Bronze Age his begun.