26 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



consider the present range of such species, as there can be no 

 question that this will throw considerable light upon our inquiry. 



The Lion (Felis leo). — This carnivore is at present confined 

 to Africa and the south-west of Asia. Its range in Africa 

 appears to have been within recent times co-extensive with that 

 continent, but it has now disappeared from a large part of Egypt 

 and the Mediterranean coast, and from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and the Gaboon and Niger districts. It even lived in Europe 

 within historical times, for it is stated by Aristotle that the lions 

 of Thessaly attacked the camels attached to the army of Xerxes. 

 The maneless lion of Asia, which is only a variety of the African 

 species, has also been considerably restricted in its range within 

 recent years. It occurred at one time over wide areas in Central, 

 "West, and North-west India, but is now confined in Hindostan 

 to the peninsula of Guzerat. It still lives in Asia Minor, and in 

 Persia, along the borders of the Persian Gulf, it is common. The 

 Cave-lion (Felis spelcea) of the Palaeolithic Period was of some- 

 what larger dimensions than the living African species (F. led), 

 and was at one time believed to be a tiger. It had a very wide 

 range in Europe, its remains occurring in many of the bone- 

 caves of Sicily, Spain, Erance, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, 

 and England. 



The Sabre-toothed Tiger or Lion (Machairodus latidens). 

 — This is an extinct species, belonging to a distinctly southern 

 type, which has been met with very sparingly in deposits of the 

 Palaeolithic Period. It occurs in what is called the Pliocene 

 formation, 1 where it is associated with a number of species that 

 indicate genial climatic conditions, from which it may be in- 

 ferred that the climate of England was probably of this character 

 at the time it lived in England. 



The Caffer Cat (Felis caffra) is met with in Egypt and West 

 and South Africa. In Palaeolithic times it was distributed over 

 a wide area in Europe, extending from the borders of the Medi- 

 terranean north as far as England. 



The Leopard (F. pardus) had a similar wide range in 



1 See Table of Sedimentary Formations, Appendix A. 



