PRIMEVAL MAN 243 



strange and formidable as mid-Africa to-day. 

 The towering imperial elephants and the burly 

 mastodons trumpeted their approach one to 

 the other. The great camels, striding noise- 

 lessly on their padded feet, passed the clumsy 

 ground-sloths on their way to water. The 

 herds of huge horses and bison drank together 

 in pools where the edges w^ere trodden into 

 mire- by innumerable hoofs. All these creatures 

 grew alertly on guard when the shadows length- 

 ened and the long-drawn baying of the wolf 

 pack heralded the night of slaughter and of 

 fear; and the dusk thrilled with the ominous 

 questing yawns of sabretooth and giant tiger, 

 as the beasts of havoc prowled abroad from 

 their day lairs among the manzanitas, or under 

 cypress and live-oak. 



The tar -pools caught birds as well as beasts. 

 Most of these birds were modern — vultures, 

 eagles, geese, herons. But there were condor- 

 like birds twice the size of any living condor, 

 the biggest birds, so far as we know, that ever 

 flew. There were also, instead of wild turkeys, 

 great quantities of wild peacocks — at least 

 they have been identified as peacocks or similar 

 big, pheasant-like birds. If the identification is 

 correct, this is an unexpected discovery and a 

 fresh proof of how this extinct American fauna at 



