74 



CHAPTEE VII. 

 Pal^eontological and Geological Evidence. 



Pal^ontological. 



The Pleistocene or early Quaternary period of the Northern 

 Hemisphere was characterised by the extension of ice, and the 

 deposit of deep alluvium in valleys and plains. 



There existed during this period not only in the palaeolithic 

 Region or the greater part of it, but also far south of it, a mam- 

 malian fauna including, among large forms, several that have 

 survived in Africa and also in India, where " some of the deposits 

 show how long was the period during which the encroachment of 

 some of the great African land animals into Europe and India must 

 have persisted." ■■'- 



But, as far as South Africa is concerned, no traces of Pleistocene 

 glacial conditions have as yet been observed, although carefully 

 searched for by the two Geological Survey parties who are mapping 

 this part of the African Continent. 



The problem is still more complicated because most of our large 

 mammals have outlived the Pleistocene, showing thus a longer 

 survival than in Europe, while others which we know existed there 

 in the early Pleistocene are still with us, and to all intents and 

 purposes unchanged, although their progenitors were contem- 

 poraneous with Chelleo-Mousterian man. 



Hyenas. — Hycena hrunnca, our so-called " Strand Wolf," lived 

 together with Elephas antiquiis, perhaps even with E. VLcridionalis, 



* Suess, " The Face of the Earth," Engl. Edit., vol. iv., Oxford, 1909. 



Ibid. " If we compare Pilgrim's description of the fauna of the alluvium of the 

 Godavari, and of the caves of Kamul (on the Kistna), where the remains of Manis 

 still occur, with Boule's account of the stratified succession in the Grimaldi 

 grottoes (Monaco), we discover that man was a witness of this extension, both in 

 Europe and in India. In Europe it extends into the interglacial phase of the 

 Chellean." 



