340 MAN AS THE COTEMPORARY OF THE MAMMOTH 



]je would no longer fear to attack, even witli liis rnde and imperfect weapons, 

 tlie mightiest denizens of tlie wild — tlio mammoth, the rhinoceros, and the hear ; 

 nor was it seldom that these fearful enemies fell before his prowess or his craft. 

 The sedimentary deposits of this era contain numerous evidences of the 

 industry of these first men, together with their own hones. The celebrated dis- 

 coveries in the neighborhood of Abbeville, which we chiefl}' owe to the assiduous 

 researches of Boucher de Perthes, have furnished so many contributions to our 

 liuowledge that wo can now figure to ourselves an image of those far remote and 

 obscure centuries during A\hich mankind lived in caves of the earth, and merely 

 added to the stock of their im})lements ])y the employment of the bones of wild 

 animals in addition to the use of flint. 



The few very ancient skulls hitherto found authorize us to speak only with 

 great reserve of the type of the races of men existing at that remote period. 

 The skull discovered in a cavern of the Neanderthal, near Uiisseldorf, exhibits 

 an unusual thickness. The projection of the supra-orbital ridges is enormously 

 great, the forehead narrow and very low. The development of the brain was 

 slight, and similar to that of certain Australians. Carl Vogt is of opinion that 

 this skull and that found by Schmerling in the cavern of Engis, near Liege, are 

 remains of a race no longer existing in Europe. But scattered discoveries like 

 these scarcely entitle us to such positive conclusions; it Avere well to await further 

 revelations before resigning ourselves to any settled determination on this point. 

 The size of the men of that distant date was not greater but rather less than at 

 l^resent, notwithstanding the belief so generally prevalent that in prehistoric times 

 our earth Avas inhabited by a race of giants. For the origin of this belief wo 

 must look to the large elliptical mounds which occur in certain districts, the 

 so-called graves of the giants, in which are found in great numbers implements 

 and weapons of stone, indicating that these graves belong to a far-distant age and 

 were receptacles for the dead bodies of a primitive people. These graves are 

 sometimes more than a hundred feet long, so that, in comparison, our modern 

 sepulchres are mere molehills. But it is an error, from the magnitude of the graves 

 to infer that of the bodies deposited therein. As the dead, at tlie epoch in ques- 

 tion, were buried, at least in part, without previous incineration, tolerably well 

 preserved skeletons have been obtained from the toml)s, and these skeletons 

 evince that, so far from being the remains of giants, they are those of a race 

 inferior in stature to the ordinary proportions of the Caucasian. The age to which 

 these gigantic tombs are to be assigned cannot be exactly determined. Nor should 

 we be justified in assuming that those who were deposited in them belonged to 

 the earliest race of men who inhabited Europe after the disappearance of the icy 

 investiture which, in the judgment of the most recent and judicious inquirers, 

 Avrapped that continent almost from side to side at the beginning of the present 

 geological era ; for the implements of stone so commonly found in the tombs 

 bear witness to a considerable degree of skill, while the tombs themselves show 

 that the builders had made no contemptible progress in that branch of mechanics 

 Avhich is occupied with the management of heavy masses. 



The strong projection of the superciliary ridge may possibly be a consequence 

 of the manner of life led by these cave-dwellers. They must need be always on 

 the luok-out against the beasts of Avhich they werein fear, or searching anxiously 

 for such as it was their business to capture for food. B}^ this incessant effort of 

 visual attention, the muscles of the part in question would become dispropor- 

 tionately levelopcd, and the physiognomy be impressed with a peculiarly wild 

 and fien. ,; aspect. 



Wer J the men of that distant time cannibals ? The question scarcely admits 

 of beiug positively answered. In Scotland, different skulls have been found, of 

 which some bear a reseml)lance to those of the ancient Britons, others to those 

 of the Australians. Together with these have been discovered bones of chil- 

 dren which, according to Owen, bear upon them the traces of human teeth. Inter- 



