THEVICEOAGE 
the Old Stone Age—the Pre-Chellean, the Chelléan, and 
the Acheulian epochs of human culture, mentioned in the 
previous chapter. 
Up to the end of this third interglacial stage the animal 
life of Europe had been one suited to a tropical or sub- 
tropical climate. It included various forms of the elephant 
and the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the monkeys, the 
lion, the hyena, and the saber-toothed tiger. These 
creatures probably came from southern Asia and northern 
Africa, in part at least by the “land-bridges”’ which then 
spanned the Mediterranean. More northern forms, like 
the musk ox, do occur during the colder stages, but not in 
the south of Europe. 
After the close of this interglacial stage, however, as 
the fourth or Wirm glacial stage drew near, this warm- 
temperate animal life of Europe died out entirely, to be 
replaced by species belonging to northern regions with a 
cold environment. A like change also occurred in the 
vegetation. 
During this fourth glacial stage the climate seems to 
have been colder than at any previous period, though 
the areas actually covered by ice sheets did not, at least 
in Europe, equal those covered in the second stage, so 
that man managed to exist in spite of the cold damp 
climate. 
The type of human culture in Europe and the ad- 
joining portions of Asia and Africa during most, if not 
all, of this glacial stage was the Mousterian, which is 
always associated with remains of the Neanderthal race, 
a species of mankind differing from that of the present 
day. For the Neanderthalers life in the fourth glacia- 
tion must have been hard and rough to a degree beyond 
anything that we can conceive of now. In its appalling 
danger and discomfort it has been likened by one recent 
author to a winter in the trenches under the conditions 
of modern warfare. Although man had progressed some- 
what in his: mastery over nature, he was still pitifully 
[ 67 ] 
