164 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



the ends of the long bones, point in this direc- 

 tion, and seem to indicate a slow maturity and 

 great length of life in this most primitive race. 

 The picture would be incomplete did we 

 not add that in France and Belgium, in the 

 immediately succeeding or reindeer age, these 

 gigantic and magnificent men seem to have 

 been superseded by a feebler race of smaller 

 stature and with shorter heads ; so that we 

 have, even in these oldest days, the same con- 

 trasts so plainly perceptible in the races of the 

 North of Europe and the North of America in 

 historical times (Figure 10). 



It is -further significant that there are some 

 indications to show that the larger and nobler 

 race was that which inhabited Eu-ope 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 con- 

 sequence of the physical changes which oc- 

 curred in connection with the subsidence which 



