PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRE-HISTORIC MEN. 199 



It is further significant that there are some indica- 

 tions to show that the larger and nobler race was 

 that which inhabited Europe at the time of its greatest 

 elevation above the sea and greatest horizontal extent, 

 and when its fauna included many large quadrupeds 

 now extinct. This race of giants was thus in the 

 possession of a greater continental area than that now 

 existing, and had to contend with gigantic brute 

 rivals for the possession of the world. It is also not 

 improbable that this early race became extinct in 

 Europe in consequence of the physical changes which 

 occurred in connection with the subsidence which 

 reduced the land to its present limits, and that the 

 dwarfish race which succeeded came in as the appro- 

 priate accompaniment of a diminished land surface 

 and a less genial climate in the early Modern period. 

 Both of these races are properly Palaeolithic, and are 

 supposed to antedate the period of polished stone; 

 but this may, to a great extent, be a prejudice of 

 collectors, who have arrived at a foregone conclusion 

 as to the distinctness of these periods : its validity 

 will be discussed in our next chapter. Judging from 

 the great cranial capacity of the older race, and the 

 small number of their skeletons found, it would be 

 fair to suppose that they represent rude outlying tribes 

 belonging to races which elsewhere had attained to 

 greater numbers and culture. 



Lastly, both of these old European races were 

 Turanian, Mongolian, or American, in their head-forms 

 and features, as well as in their habits, implements, 



