PH OLD STONE ‘AGE 
stage in the Alps. During Middle Magdalenian times, a 
temporary retreat of the ice fields followed, and somewhat 
more genial climatic conditions returned. Finally, the 
second postglacial advance, known as the Gschnitz stage 
in the Alpine region, seems to have coincided fairly closely 
with the closing period of Mag- 
dalenian culture, bringing with 
it a cold, wet climate, although 
the snow line did not descend 
as far down the mountain- 
sides as during the Buhl ad- 
vance. 
These climatic fluctuations 
naturally affected the animal 
life, although not in any radi- 
cal way. Both tundra and 
steppe forms existed, including 
the reindeer and the horse, 
upon which the Magdalenians 
depended largely for food; 
although, of course, they only 
hunted them and did not bring 
them under domestication. 
The Magdalenians also knew 
the saiga antelope, distinctly 
a steppe animal; the musk ox, 
now a denizen of arctic North 
America; the bison and the 
moose, both closely related to 
existing forms; the ibex, the 
beaver, the wolverine, the lion, — Fic. 51. Magdalenian bone and 
the wolf, the fox, and many ivory aR Te After 
others. The mammoth and 
the woolly rhinoceros still occurred in western Europe at 
the beginning of the epoch, although they disappeared 
before it was over. Thus the fauna was of a typical cold- 
loving type; for even the lion, which we think of today as 
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