284 WALKS AND TALKS. 



Archaeologists accordingly divide prehistoric time into three 

 ages: 1. The AGE OF STONE; which was subdivided into the 



( Pcdceolitiiic or rough-stone epoch, and the Neolithic or polished- 

 stone epoch ; 2. The AGE OF BRONZE ; and 3, the AGE OF 



I IRON. Within certain geographical limits these three ages in 

 the progress of culture are consecutive. But it must not be 

 supposed that they mark periods in the history of man at 

 large. The Age of Stone is long past in Europe ; but it pre- 

 vailed still in the Hawaiian Islands when discovered by Cap- 

 tain Cook; and still prevails among the Indians of America. 

 Gathering together the numerous facts which supply infor- 

 mation concerning the primeval inhabitants of Europe, we 

 are able to set the following inferences in order: When man 

 / first made his advent in Europe, that continent was still the 

 abode of quadrupeds now long extinct. The caverns were 

 shared with man by the Cave Bear, the Cave Hysena, and 

 the Cave Lion. These gradually gave place to gigantic 

 Herbivores the Hairy Mammoth, the Hairy Rhinoceros, 

 and the Reindeer. The Mammoth roamed in herds over 

 the whole of Europe, Northern Asia, and North America 

 (Talk XXVII). The Hairy, or Two-horned Rhinoceros 

 in company with another two-horned species, thundered 

 through the forests or wallowed in the jungles and swamps. 

 The rivers and lakes of Southern Europe were tenanted by 

 the hippopotamus and the beaver. Three kinds of wild oxen, 

 two of which were of colossal strength, and one of these was 

 "maned and villous like the Bonassus," grazed with the mar- 

 mot and wild goat and chamois upon the hills and plains 

 which skirt the Mediterranean. The musk-ox and the rein- 

 deer browsed in the meadows of Perigord, in the south of 

 France, while a gigantic elk ranged from Ireland to the bor- 

 ders of Italy. 



From similar evidences, we learn that primitive man in 



1 America was also the contemporary of quadrupeds now long 



extinct. Beneath the lava of California, the bones of the 



mammoth and mastodon and the broad-faced ox lie minified 



with the bones and implements of man. East of the Rocky 



