PRIMEVAL MAN 239 



roved and preyed on the herds of huge plant- 

 eating beasts. We know that many Asiatic 

 beasts crossed over this land bridge — the bears, 

 bison, mountain-sheep, moose, caribou, and 

 wapiti, which still live both in Asia and North 

 America, and the mammoth and cave-bears, 

 which have died out on both continents. It is 

 at least possible — further investigation may or 

 may not show it to be more than possible — that 

 the huge Pleistocene cat of western America 

 was the collateral ancestor of the Manchurian 

 tiger. Whether it was another immigrant from 

 Asia, or a developed form of some big American 

 Pliocene cat, cannot with our present knowledge 

 be determined. 



Surely the thought of this vast and teeming, 

 and utterly vanished wild life, must strongly 

 appeal to every man of knowledge and love of 

 nature, who is gifted with the imaginative power 

 to visualize the past and to feel the keen delight 

 known only to those who care intensely both for 

 thought and for action, both for the rich ex- 

 perience acquired by toil and adventure, and 

 for the rich experience obtained through books 

 recording the studies of others. 



Doubtless such capacity of imaginative ap- 

 preciation is of no practical help to the hunter 

 of big game to-day, any more than the power to 



