THE EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN 37 



species of elephant, rhinoceros, and other genera 

 now confined to the warmer climates. This new and 

 noble world was the rich heritage of primeval man. 



Pictet has estimated the number of species of 

 mammals inhabiting Europe in the palanthropic 

 period at ninety-eight, 1 of which only fifty-seven now 

 live there, the remainder being either wholly or locally 

 extinct that is, they are either not now existing in 

 any part of the world, or are found only beyond the 

 limits of Central, Western, and Southern Europe. 

 The extinct species also include the largest and 

 noblest of all. It has been remarked that the 

 assemblage of palanthropic species in Europe and 

 Western Asia is so great and varied that with our 

 present experience we can scarcely imagine them 

 to have existed contemporaneously in the same 

 region. For example, the association of species of 

 elephant and rhinoceros, the musk-sheep, the reindeer, 

 the Cape hyena, and the hippopotamus seems to be 

 incongruous. 



Various theories have been proposed to remove 

 the difficulty. Modern analogies will allow us to 

 believe in such astounding facts if we take into 

 account the probability of a warm climate, especially 

 in summer, along with a wooded state of the country 

 providing much shelter, and wide continental plains 

 affording facilities for seasonal migrations. There 



1 Zittel, in a recent paper (1893), gives no species of mammals in 

 the pleistocene and early modern. Of these about twenty of the 

 largest and most important are extinct. 



