246 THE REV. J. MAGEXS MELLO, M.A., F.G.S., ETC., 



summers hotter than those noAv experienced. AVe pictm^e to 

 om'selves snow-covered mountains, with their gh\ciers creep- 

 ing down into the valleys, in Avhich the snow would lie thick, 

 as the winter advanced, whilst the rivers wonkl be sealed np 

 by ice. 



It was a period in which man was contemporary with a 

 number of animals no longer present in Europe, some of 

 which, as the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, are totally 

 extinct, whilst others have retreated to other lands, the 

 reindeer, the musk ox, the glutton and others, northwards, 

 whilst hyaenas and lions, hippopotami and various other 

 species have sought a home far to the south in warmer 

 climes. 



When these animals finally disappeared from these districts 

 is not easily determined. We know indeed pretty well the 

 date of the extinction of some few species, as, for instance, 

 of wolves from England, but that of others we can but guess. 

 M. Schaafhauseu has concluded that the mammoth ^v^.s in 

 existence at as late a date as 2000 B.C. or 3000 B.C., and if so 

 it is not improbable that its companion, the woolly rhinoceros, 

 may have survived to an equally late epoch. Other animals, 

 such as the bison or aurochs, still live in the forests of 

 Lithuania, and the reindeer, now no nearer than Lapland, 

 was, it is reported, found in North-East Gaul in historic times. 

 In the strange climate of the Pleistocene age might have 

 been witnessed a remarkable intermingling of Northern and 

 Southern mammalia, of animals now widely separated, but 

 which were then living side by side, and which not only 

 lived but bred in the countries where their remains have been 

 left. Thus in the same cave floor we may find the bones of 

 the hya3na and its cub, together with the gnawed bones of 

 the reindeer and its fawn, we may also find those of the 

 young, as well as of the old mammoth and rhinoceros ; and 

 with all these animals as well as with many others, such as 

 bears, large felines, horses, gigantic elks, and other species, 

 man was contemporary. His works are found in the closest 

 proximity to theirs, and under circumstances which preclude 

 all doubt as to their having been buried at the same period ; 

 in fact, they lived and died together. 



The most striking proof of man's contemporaneity with the 

 Pleistocene mammalia is derived from contemporary art. 

 It may seem strange to speak of art in connection with the 

 Palseohthic savage, yet it is the fact that he was an artist, 

 and, considering the poor materials with which he had to 



