AND THE REINDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 345 



The caverns in which such discoveries have been made are not confined alone 

 to France ; in other countries revelations of the same kind have taken place. 

 Thus, for example, Colonel Wood has brought to light, in the cavern of Longhole, 

 (England,) the remains of two different species of the rhinoceros, (Wiinoccros ficho- 

 rhinus and B. hcmitocclmsj together with knives of flint. In the cave of Wells, 

 in Somersetshire, in the Wokey cave, and in several caverns of the peninsula of 

 Gower, in Wales, bones of extinct animals have been found, but the cotemporarv 

 presence of man has not as yet been substantiated. The celel>rated Gailenreu- 

 ther cave in Franc<jnia is well knowni to be rich in remains of wild animals. The 

 grotto of Chiango, near Vicenza, and that of Laglio, on the shore of Lake Como, 

 contain numerous bones of cave bears, mixed with some implements and the 

 relics of rude earthen-ware, a rare contribution fi'om so remote an epoch of the 

 human race. In Sicily have been found, in the grotto of Macagnome, bones of 

 the Ekplias antiquus, a cotemporarv of man, together with bones of other beasts, 

 and the remnants of human industry. Were we to enumerate all the caverns of 

 this sort, the list would bo a long one. We find such in all parts of the earth, 

 and it is not seldom, as for instance in Syria, Brazil, &c., that the}- afford evidence 

 of the cotemporarv existence of man and fossil species. Nor are the discoveries 

 which prove this synchronism of man with the great extinct mammalia limited 

 to the caves alone. The valleys of the Somme, the Thames, &c., furnish the 

 traces of human industry in the form of implements wrought of flint-stone, in 

 common with the bones of the mammoth and rhinoceros. Especiallv rich ai'e 

 these kinds of depositories in France, Belgium, and England. 



But how was it that man and these great mammalia of the quaternary era pen- 

 etrated to England, after migrating from the north of Asia, Avhere they perhaps 

 existed at the pliocene period '? It is readily seen that the migrations may have 

 taken place before the iiTuption of the waters into the English channel, or if 

 later, over the ice of the frozen sea, for the wdntei-s, at the date of the npper sili- 

 cious deposit in the valley of the Somme, must have been verj- rigid. 



The era of the cave bears embraces several thousands of years. During this 

 period the temperature in Europe was less inhospitable, but on the approach of 

 the epoch known as that of the reindeer a recurrence of intense cold must have 

 taken place. 



It is now some 30 years since the statement was authoritatively made in 

 Switzerland that the glaciers had, at a geological period of the earth's histoiy 

 which can scarcely yet be considered as having passed away, occupied a far 

 wider extent than at present, and not only descended to the level country, but 

 piled themselves to a considerable height against the wall of the Jura, opposite 

 to tlie Alps. Regarded at first by the older geologists as a rash and visionary 

 hypothesis, the glacier theory has continued to gain ground, basing itself on 

 researches restricted to no latitudes, but laying under contribution alike the north 

 and south, the mountains and the valleys ; so that in these later times its most 

 bigoted adversaries will scarcely venture to deny that it has always followed 

 with scrupulous steps the observation of facts, and has never accepted anything 

 as proved which could not be established by direct reference to the glaciers and 

 ai'ctic seas of the present daj^ 



The rocks of Norway and Sweden, as well as those of Iceland, are in so many 

 places rubbed away, scratched and furrowed, that it may with certainty be 

 assumed that the agent by which these phenomena were produced has been in 

 operation over the whole region, aud that where they fail to appear they have 

 been obliterated by subsequent influences, particularly elementary abrasion. 

 The polished and fun-owed surfaces, all tending in a certain direction, are found 

 at a height of 5,000 feet in the Norwegian mountains, so that few peaks and 

 ridges rise above the level of the phenomenon. This has undoubtedly greatly 

 contributed to the uniformity of outline in the mountain chains of Norway'; 

 while in tiie Alps, where the height of the phenomenon reaches 8,000 feet, the 



