468 ABORIGINES OF EUROPE. 



white bears may be seen in flocks like sheep. Ice 

 mountains tower in the air, and, as the summer ap- 

 proaches, glide into the ocean and sail towards the 

 south. The sky is brightened by a rosy flame, which 

 utters a crisp and crackling sound. All else is silent ; 

 nature is benumbed. The signs of human habitations 

 are rare ; sometimes a tribe of Esquimaux may be 

 perceived, dwelling in snow huts, enveloped in furs, 

 driving sledges with teams of dogs, tending their herds 

 of reindeer on the moss-grounds, or dashing over the 

 cold waters in their canoes to hunt the walrus and 

 the seal. 



This gloomy region, where the year is divided into 

 one day and one night, lies entirely outside the stream 

 of history. We descend through the land of the pine 

 to the land of the oak and beech. Huge woods and 

 dismal fens covered Europe in the olden time; by the 

 banks of dark and sullen rivers the beavers built their 

 villages ; the bears and the wolves were the aristocracy 

 of Europe ; men paid them tribute in flesh and blood. 

 A people, apparently of Tartar origin, had already 

 streamed into this continent from Asia; but the true 

 aborigines were not extinct ; they inhabited huts 

 built on piles in the lakes of Switzerland ; they herded 

 together in mountain caves. They were armed 

 only with stone weapons ; but they cultivated certain 

 kinds of grain, and had tamed the reindeer, the ox, 

 the boar, and the dog. In ancient history Europe 

 has no place. Even the lands to the south of the 

 Alps were inhabited by savages at a time when Asia 

 was in a civilised condition. 



It is therefore Asia that we must first survey ; it is 

 there that the history of books and monuments begins. 

 The Tigris and Euphrates rise in a table-land adjoining 



