AND THE REINDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 341 



mingled witli these remains, arroAV-heads of flint occnrand pottery of a very rude 

 description. Spring, wlio carefully examined the bones of children which were 

 found in Bclginm, in the grotto of Chauvean, also amvcd at the conclusion that 

 they were the remains of a repast made by cannibals. The proof offered by 

 these facts, however, is not of a convincing kind ; on the contrary, it has been 

 met by strong objections. If men in the quaternary period devonred their fel- 

 low-creatures, it is difhcult to suppose that the marrow of the bones would not be 

 a delicacy as eagerly sought as was that of the beasts slain in the chase. But 

 no human l)ones are found which have been opened in such a way as to extract 

 this nuich-coveted substance, while everywhere occur in abundance the bones of 

 mammalian animals which have been evidently fractm-ed for that purpose. 



A question has been suggested by Horn Avhether the marrow of the longer 

 bones of animals served the primeval men simply and solely as nourishment ? 

 It may have been used also for anointing the body, as well for protection against 

 noxious insects as against cold. Nor is it unlikely that one of its economical 

 uses may have been for rendering more pliant the skins which served ibr cloth- 

 ing. As an article of food the marrow must have been devoured raw, for most 

 of the bones show that they have undergone no action from fire. Indeed, dur- 

 ing the earliest stage of man's existence in Europe, fire would seem to have been 

 unknown for any such puii)ose, as were also vessels artificially made of earth ; 

 and if the marrow was to be melted for the processes just mentioned, it could only 

 be efl'ected by the heat of the sun and in ca\dties of the rocks. 



It has been remarked that in the bones of the human jaw^ which have come 

 do-\\ai to us from the stUl more recent age of stone, the incisor teeth are greatly 

 worn. Hence it has been hastily infeiTcd that flesh was then eaten uncooked ; 

 but this view is in conflict with the discovery of charcoal imder circumstances 

 which imply the former existence of a hearth; nor is it to be supposed that, after 

 having learned the economical uses of fire, men would continue to devom- their 

 food raw. The abrasion of the incisors might perhaps proceed from a peculiar 

 mode of mastication. At this day the Esquimaux are said to use the front rather 

 than the molar teeth in manducating food. 



The caverns in w'hich at that remote era the bear, the tiger, and the hyena 

 found a lair, are easily distinguishable from those selected by man as a habita- 

 tion. In the fonner, the bones which occur are unbroken ; they bear merely the 

 traces of having been gnawed by carnivorous beasts. In the haunts of the human 

 being, on the contrary, the bones are always broken in the direction of their length, 

 for the purpose of extracting the marrow. Our primitive ancestors devoured indis- 

 criminately the horse, the ox, the l)ear, the tiger, and even the rhinoceros, pro- 

 vided the chase was successful. If the mammoth fell into their hands, the thick 

 integument of the animal must indeed have been a prize for their rude dormito- 

 ries. 



This first age of man must doubtless have comprised thousands of years. We 

 know how slow has been the development of the human race, and from the con- 

 sideration that each generation stands on the shoulders of the preceding and civil- 

 ization is but the product of the past, wc can readily apprehend that the process 

 of improvement must have been tardy and difiicult in proportion to the distance 

 of time W'hich separates us from the period under contemplation. Accelerated 

 progress comes only with the experience and facilities of multiplied years. Long 

 must have been the ages when man's life was Init a struggle for existence; and 

 for the bare satisfaction of the meaner necessities of his nature. Discoveries 

 have been too few and indecisive to afford us any distinct image of the habits 

 and mode of life which characterized this primordial condition of our race; but 

 it is gratifying to add that a discovery has at length been made which seems to 

 lead in that direction, and which is the more important inasmuch as it has given 

 a renewed impulse to explorations of the same kind. 



In the year 1852, a laborer, named Bonnemaison, employed in repaiiing the 



