270 Master Minds of Modern Science 



cave, and there got more skin and bones. They also 

 collected two bird's nests partly made of hair plucked 

 from the hides of these extinct giants. But the most 

 interesting discovery made was that these animals must 

 originally have been kept in the cave by human beings. 

 The date at which this happened cannot be definitely 

 fixed, but it may well have been within the past two 

 thousand years. 



The relics collected by these Germans came into the 

 hands of a rich Jew who lived in Berlin. As soon as Dr 

 Smith Woodward heard of this he went off that very 

 same night to Berlin and interviewed the owner, who 

 told him that the Kaiser was going to buy the remains. 

 Dr Smith Woodward wanted them badly for the British 

 Museum, but he felt that it was impossible to bid against 

 the Kaiser. He then went to see the scientist who usually 

 advised the Kaiser on these matters, and, learning from 

 him that he was not recommending the purchase, Wood- 

 ward hurried back to the Jew and made him an offer. 

 It was accepted, and, thanks entirely to Dr Smith Wood- 

 ward, these most interesting remains are now to be seen 

 at South Kensington. 



In talking to the writer Sir Arthur mentioned the 

 interesting fact that bones of horses were found in the 

 cave where the remains of the mylodon were discovered. 

 The interest of this discovery will be appreciated when it 

 is explained that when white men first reached America 

 there was not a horse on the continent, North or South. 

 Yet in both North and South America fossilized horse 

 bones have been dug up in large quantities. 



Sir Arthur Smith Woodward is best known for his 

 researches connected with the antiquity of man, and more 

 particularly in connexion with the Piltdown skull, the 

 oldest human skull ever found in Europe. This skull was 

 actually discovered by Charles Dawson, a solicitor of 

 Lewes, who had already discovered the natural gas of 



