HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



77 



have suggested that during those early times there 

 may have been warm and cold periods, each lasting 

 perhaps ten or twelve thousand years, and that ' ' the 

 southern animals lived in our island during the warm 

 periods of the glacial epoch, while the northern ani- 

 mals lived during the cold periods." That there were 

 such interglacial periods of warmth appears to be not 

 improbable, but, allowing this, I do not see how we 

 can, with the testimony of cave deposits before us, 

 fail to be convinced that northern and southern forms 

 did not make their appearance separately, each living 

 here for awhile and then disappearing, but that they 

 lived during long periods actually side by side. The 

 condition of the various bones found is such that they 

 undoubtedly convey the impression of perfect con- 

 temporaneity ; any way, they are found lying side by 

 side, without a vestige of rolling or wear and tear, 



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Fig. 53, Quartzite Implement, Creswell ; J nat. size. 



in deposits from a few inches to only a foot or two in 

 thickness ; a rein-deer bone, for instance, almost, if 

 not quite, in contact with the jaw of a hyaena, and 

 bearing upon it what we can hardly help believing to 

 be the marks of the hysena's teeth upon its surface. 

 The remains of Arctic and southern forms are so 

 intimately blended together, and present such simi- 

 larity of aspect in such caves, for instance, as those 

 of Creswell, and the gnawed bones of rein-deer, 

 rhinoceroses, and other animals are so exactly like 

 the bones gnawed by hyaenas of to-day, that the 

 evidence appears overwhelming that they all must 

 have lived side by side ; and the easiest way of 

 accounting for such a condition of things is to sup- 

 pose, as has been suggested, a seasonal immigration 

 and intermingling of the animals in a climate subject 

 to an extreme range of summer and winter tempera- 

 ture, unless we accept as an alternative that the 

 intermingling may have taken place at the com- 

 mencement or close of an interglacial period, but that 

 there was such an intermingling of forms appears to 

 be beyond question. 



Now, when these animals lived in England, man 

 was their companion ; there is now not the slightest 

 doubt of that. The evidence, fifty years ago so 

 scanty, so incredulously received, has become over- 

 whelming. To take the evidence of caves alone : 

 in numerous caves in this country, in those of France, 

 Belgium, and Switzerland, traces of man's presence 

 have been found in vast quantity intimately mixed up 



in the same beds in which the bones of the animals 

 are found, and showing most clearly that they must 

 have been deposited at the same time. And is it 

 asked, what are those traces? Have you any 

 human bones ? The answer is, not many. A few 

 have been found in some caverns, and these have been 

 found to be in exactly the same condition as those of 

 the extinct animals ; but I do not think that we have 

 any right to expect to find many bones, and one 

 reason is that although man was then present, his 

 numbers were few indeed, compared with the vast 

 multitude of wild animals. Why, even as recently 

 as the time of Queen Elizabeth I believe that the 

 population of all England did not exceed that of 

 London to-day. Man would then be in the propor- 

 tion of one to many thousands of wild animals, with 

 whom he would have to wasre a hard and often 



Fig. 54. Flint Implement, Le Moustier, Fr. ; f nat. size. 



precarious struggle for existence. And again, if the 

 men of those primitive times neglected their dead, as 

 do some tribes of men now, the hycenas, wolves, and 

 other animals would not leave many bones to tell the 

 story of man's existence. What we do find to prove 

 that man then lived are his weapons and his tools, — 

 rude, indeed, at first, and ill formed, but yet showing 

 a certain amount of design and intention in their 

 shape never to be found in mere naturally-broken 

 stones. Man's first tools and weapons were the 

 pebbles picked up around him, rudely fashioned for 

 such simple work as he required them to perform by 

 a few pieces chipped off here and there, to enable 

 them to be more readily held in the hand, or fastened 

 into holders of bone or wood ; such rude tools would 

 serve as hammers to break bones for the sake of their 

 marrow, to scrape the skins of animals killed in the 

 chase with the primitive stone-headed lance or arrow. 

 Implements of this primitive character have been 

 found in abundance in the lower beds of some of the 

 caves of this and other countries, as well as in the 

 ancient river-beds. In England, the caves of Creswell 

 and that of Kent's Hole have furnished many highly 

 characteristic specimens of these earliest efforts of 

 human skill, whilst the gravels of the Thames Valley, 

 of the Ouse and other rivers in this country, and 

 those of Amiens and Abbeville, amongst others in 

 France, have also furnished numerous examples, some 

 made of quartzite and other pebbles, others of flint. In 

 the case of the rude hammer-stones, little has been 



