336 MAN AS THE COTEMPORAKY OF THE MAMMOTH 



the Carpatlnan mountains, the Balkan, the Pyrenees, and the Apennines, were 

 filled to the summit with ice. From the peaks of the Alps, which lose them- 

 selves in dense clouds, descended enormous glaciers which, towards the south, 

 stretched into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, as yet covered by the sea, 

 while, towards the north, another glacier, 720 square miles in extent and 36 

 miles in length, reached to the Jura. The European continent, however, was, 

 at that remote period, of much less extent than at present. The more depressed 

 parts formed then the bed of the sea, and what was not covered with water lay 

 liidden, during the long Avinter, under the enveloping snow. 



In the wastes of ice towards the north jjole men contrive to live, but we 

 find no trace of them in Em'ope at the time we are speaking of. But centuries 

 elapsed, the snow gradually decreased, the glaciers retreated by degrees, as did 

 also the sea, and a strange fauna occupied Europe: an elephant covered with 

 crisped hair and having a long mane, a rhinoceros similarly protected, a liippo- 

 potamus which must have immigrated from the south through the mouths of the 

 rivers, gigantic bears, a large kind of tiger, multitudes of hyenas of still existing 

 species, a huge ox, &c. These animals subsisted together mider a still rude, 

 but less austere climate. At this time, also, man existed in Europe, in the midst 

 of this not precisely idyllic fellowsliip ! 



]S'ow, the question is this: In western Europe was man indigenous or had he 

 migrated from Asia, together with the manmioth and rhinoceros ? It would seem 

 probal)le that, before entering Europe, he had iidiabited Asia. During the great 

 gla(;ier period, the climate in southern Asia was less severe than in Europe, and 

 therefore better fitted for the sustenance of man, whose dental system more nearly 

 approaches that of the granivorous than that of the carnivorous tribes. It is, 

 indeed, believed that, during the glacier period, Europe was divided from Asia, 

 and that the two continents first became united after the retreat of the sea. At 

 that time also, the first migration of mankind to the west must have taken place, 

 induced by the desire of occupying the lands which had newly emerged from the 

 waters. 



In what light shall we picture to ourselves the condition of these men 1 

 The oldest implements of theirs which we possess, the traces of the hearths 

 which served them to cook their food, certainly do not reach back to the earliest 

 times of the existence of man upon the earth. However our pride may revolt 

 at the fact, we are forced to acknowledge that man, as he stepped at first upon this 

 part of the earth, bore, in his instincts, his passions and his wants, no small 

 resemblance to the brutes. Fire was still unknown to him ; his teeth show 

 that he drew his nourishment from roots and other growths of the soil, and when 

 he began to use ficsh for food he must have devoured it raw. His unsettled life 

 was exclusively devoted to satisfying his material wants; no idea had he of any 

 exalted endowments ; his speech would consist naturally of only a small number 

 of words, in which, as is the case with the bushmen and other barl)arous tribes, 

 the vowels played a prominent part. A skin, stripped from the beasts he had 

 slain, formetl the clothing of the primeval Euroi)ean ; his limbs were exposed to the 

 inclemencies of the weiither, and when he would seek rest or protection from the 

 cold or from wild animals, his necessary resort was to the forest or to dark cavi- 

 ties in the earth. Yet, in spite of the humble stage at which man stood in this 

 early period of his mundane existence, he was still the paragon of creation. 

 He was gifted with reason, and this invested him with supremacy over the beasts 

 of the wilderness. 



In time, by means of the lightning and volcano, man would become acquainted 

 with fire, and soon recognizing its beneficial activities would learn to preserve it 

 as his greatest treasure. Since he knew not as yet how to produce it, he would 

 carefully maintain it by day and night. Hence, in the earliest times, fire would 

 naturally become the object of peculiar veneration; It must also have exerted 

 a powerful influence on the conditions of human existence. To the roots and 



