MACHAIRODUS. 183 



it is hardly conceivable that Man, in an early and rude 

 condition of society, could have resisted the attacks of the 

 more formidable Tiger, Bear, and Machairodus of the cave 

 epoch. And this consideration may lead us the more 

 readily to receive the negative evidence of the absence of 

 well-authenticated human fossil remains, and to conclude 

 that Man did not exist in the land which was ravaged 

 simultaneously by three such formidable Carnivora, aided 

 in their work of destruction by troops of savage Hyaenas. 



