AND THE KEINDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 36 J 



bones have been found here, but some 3,000 implements of flint, as well as others 

 of bone and reindeers horn ha\'e been recovered. The hearth, paved with Hat 

 stones, lay in the middle of the cave, and on it were still foimd coals and ashes. 



However incomplete may be the results thus far obtained, they still show in 

 the most conclusive manner the correctness of the deductions which have been 

 drawn from them. The remains which have descended to us undoubtedly pre- 

 sent many a riddle, but we should not despair of their ultimate solution. I'er- 

 haps a fortunate incident may bring us, sooner than we think, the desired expla- 

 nation; 



In conclusion, we should say something respecting the animals which, in that 

 distant age, lived as the cotemporaries of man. The cave bear, ( Ursiis spdccus,) 

 according to Owen and Pomel, first made its appearance in England and at 

 Charapeix in Auvergne, towards the end of the tertiary epoch. If all the deter- 

 minations are correct, its remains have been found in Siberia, Scania, France, 

 Belgium, England, and GTerraany. The cave bear was the largest of the species 

 known, and seems to have become extinct before the reindeer era. 



The mammoth (Elcphas prhiiigcnhts) was living in middle Asia about the 

 end of the tertiary epoch, but in Europe its remains are first found in the quater- 

 nary formations. It has inhabited a wide geograj)hical zone, for it sj)read from 

 Sicily to England, but to the south it extended not beyond central Italy and the 

 Pyrenees. In Italy and southern France it seems to have survived during a 

 part of the reindeer period, while i'urther to the north it had disappeared. 



The rhinoceros lived almost universally in company Avith the mammoth, and 

 became extinct during the reindeer age. It is generally known that a carcass of 

 this rhinoceros was preserved, together with a mammoth, for many thousand 

 years in the ice of Siberia. "When discovered, they were found to be still fur- 

 nished with both hide and hair. 



The cave hyena (Hiiama spelcea) was, during the quaternary epoch, of very 

 frequent occurrence in Europe. It is commonly supposed to have belonged to 

 one of the two diti'erent African species still surviving. Thus far, traces of this 

 animal have only been fouiid in the pliocene or upper tertiary deposits, and it 

 seems to have lived neither in Spain, the south of Italy, nor in Sicily. The cave 

 hyena became extinct during the reindeer period, and in Belgium even before 

 that era. 



The gigantic cat of the caves, (Fells spda'aj whether tiger or lion, a point 

 very difficult to be decided from the parts of the skeleton found in those reposito- 

 ries, makes its appearance only with the quaternary period, and seems to have 

 disappeared with the same. The reindeer period reveals some traces of it, and 

 this indicates that the feline tenant of the caves had not then disappeared, like 

 its cotem})orary, the cave bear. Lartet even asks whether the former, like the 

 aurochs, while withdrawing further to the east, did not survive within the period 

 of history. In fact, the lion of Thessaly, spoken of by Herodotus, and which is 

 figured on Grecian coins, endured a climate like our own, and could not there- 

 fore be the ])resent African species. Dr. Falconer has gone even further : in his 

 opinion the great feline animal which subsists on the slopes of the Altai and in 

 the north of China, and which is generally supposed to be identical with the 

 Bengal tiger, may well be the FcJis sptckea, which, by reason of the increase of 

 mankind and the development of civilization, has retreated into the deeper recesses 

 of Asia. 



The gigantic deer was chiefly an inhabitant of England and Ireland. A com- 

 plete and very fine specimen of it may be seen in the British ]\Iuseum. Its remains 

 are met with, but not very frequently, in France as far as the Pyrenees, in Ger- 

 many and the north of Italy. This animal existed as early as the jdioceneera, 

 and became extinct during the reindeer period. Its horns measured from 10 to 

 11 feet in ])readth. It has been improperly called the deer of the, peat moors, 

 since, at the time when these moors were formed, it no longer existed. 



