AND THE KEIXDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 337 



rather nnsavorv products of tlie earth, flesh woxihl more generally sncceed as a 

 diet, the means Laving been supplied of rendering it tender and digestible. 

 Against the rigors of winter, fire ofiered its ready and invaluable succor. The 

 continual reassemblage around the same hearth contributed in no small degree 

 to the formation of the family. 



At this geological epoch the level of the water sank more and more, so that 

 the submerged lands of Europe rose gradually above the sea. The glaciers 

 melted m part, and at that time the valleys began to exist. The part borne by 

 the sea and by the water resulting from the melting glaciers in this first debacle, 

 admits of no aecnrate determination. From this period proceed also the deposits 

 of rounded pebbles which cover iu great pait difterent regions of Europe. 

 Another phenomenon stands in close connection with these great currents of 

 water : the caves were emptied of the clay which had tilled them. 



Amidst tliis grand melting of glaciers, and the floods thereby occasioned, the 

 volcanoes in Auvergne were emitting flames and lava. Their activity was wit- 

 nessed by hum;m beings, who became, in some cases, victims to their violence, 

 as is testified by the human remains found iu the volcanic tufa of Moimt Dcnise 

 de Veh\is. At the s;ime epoch, herds of the gigantic mammoth and rhinoceros 

 roamed over middle Europe and central Asia. With them were to be seen also 

 the great bear of the caves, the coloss;il tiger, hyenas, the horse, and the hirger 

 ruminants. Man had at once to defend himself against the savage animals and 

 to hunt them as the means of his own subsistence. 



The animals which existed cotemporaueously with the fossil man were, accord- 

 ing to geological researches, the following : the mammoth {Elcphas jyrimiffCJiius. 

 Bluraenb..) the Siberian rhinoceros {Bhinoceros tichormus, Cuv.,) the hyena of 

 the caves [Hifccna spdcva. Gold..) the tiger of the caves {Fdis spelcva. Gold.,) 

 the gigantic deer {2£c(iaccros hifhcmiciis,) the bear of the caves [Ursiis spclccus,) 

 the reindeer [Cervus tarandu^, Lin..) the ure-ox and the aurochs {JBos primigc- 

 lUKS aud Bison curopicctis.) together with many of the smaller carnivora, iusec- 

 tlvora, rodentia, &:c. These animals, now in great part extinct or confined, like 

 the reindeer and bison, to certain narrow districts, lived, probably, thousands of 

 years ]>eiore the era of the more recent pile-stnactures, whose occupants have 

 left behind them, in their utensils aud implements, the traces of an unfolding 

 civilization, and had succeeded iu domesticating some of the above species. 



When we consider that the early raen. with their miserably inadequate weap- 

 ons, were called upon now to himt such fierce and gigantic creatiuTS as game, and 

 now to contend with the more rapacious of them for their own lives and acqui- 

 sitions, the remark of Lyell will not seem overstrained, that it is truly wonder- 

 ful how the primitive man could maintain his existence in the presence of these 

 formidable adversaries. But it must be ix»membered, in explanation of the fact, 

 that iu the case of these remote ancestors of ours, as iu that of the rude tribes 

 of the present day, the instincts wh.ich guide even the beasts were developed to 

 a high degree of energy and cunning, so that it would be practicable for them 

 to provide for then- necessities aud ward oft' apprehended dangers. In this, the 

 reflective imderstanding gave even to the earliest of our race a superiority not 

 to be undervalued, over the brutal force of the lower animals. 



The power of endm-auce acqtiired by a life iu the t>pen lur, partly in the 

 recesses of the thick forests, partly in caves, the bodily agility and dexterity in 

 the use of their certainly very primitive weapons, supplied, especially in a com- 

 bined onset, something of the eihciency of our fire-arms ; aud the exhausted 

 and incessantly harassed beasts would tiually become the prey of the indefati- 

 gable huntsman. For. that our earliest predecessors were huntsmen and fisher- 

 men, the scanty subsistence aflbrded liy the flora of that age permits us not to 

 doubt. 3Iany animals would be ca]itured by means of pittalls, as is now the 

 case in Africa and other regions. (.)n the other hand, we see that the Esqui- 

 maux of to-day, seconded only by then- faithful dogs, aud armed merely with 

 22 s 07 



