AND THE EEINDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 337 



ratlier unsavory products of tLe earth, flesli would more generally succeed as a 

 diet; tlie means having been supplied of rendering it tender and digestible. 

 Against the rigors of winter, fire offered 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 geok)gical epoch the level of the water sank more and more, so that 

 tlie submerged lands of Europe rose gi'adually above the sea. The glaciers 

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

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

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

 of rounded pebbles which cover in great part different regions of Europe. 

 Another phenomenon stands in close connection with these great cmTcnts of 

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



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

 volcanoes in Auvergne were emitting flames and lava. Their activit}^ was wit- 

 nessed ])y human beings, who became, in some cases, victims to their violence, 

 as is testified by the human remains found in the volcanic tufa of Mount Denise 

 de Vehxis. At the same 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 colossal tiger, hyenas, the horse, and the larger 

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

 to hunt them as the means of his ovm subsistence. 



The animals which existed cotemporaneously 'udth the fossil man were, accord- 

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

 Blumenb.,) the Siberian rhinoceros {Bhinoceros tichorinus, Cuv.,) the hyeua of 

 the caves [Hyccna spelcca, Gold.,) the tiger of the caves {Fells spdcca, Gold.,) 

 the gigantic deer [Mcgaceros hylicrnkus,) the bear of the caves {TJrsus sjxiccus,) 

 the reindeer [Ccrvus tarandus, Lin.,) the m'e-ox and the aurochs (Bos x^rimige- 

 nius and Bison curopcsus,) together with many of the smaller carnivora, insec- 

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

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

 years before the era of the more recent pile-structures, whoso occupants have 

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

 civilization, and had succeeded in domesticating some of the above s^iecies. 



When we consider that the early men, with their miserably inadequate weap- 

 ons, were called upon now to hunt such fierce and gigantic creatm'cs as game, and 

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

 sitions, the remark of Lyell Vvill 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 remembered, in explanation of the fact, 

 that in the case of these remote ancestors of om's, as in that of the rude tribes 

 of the present day, the instincts which 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 their necessities and ward off apprehended dangers. In this, the 

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

 to be unden\alued, over the brutal force of the lower animals. 



The power of endurance acquired by a life in the open aii', 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 efficiency of our fh'c-arms ; and the exhausted 

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

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

 men, the scanty subsistence afforded by the flora of that age permits us not to 

 doubt. Many animals would be captured by means of pitfalls, as is now the 

 case in ^Vbica and other regions. On the other hand, we see that the Esqui- 

 maux of to-day, seconded only bv their faithful dogs, and armed merely with 

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