246 LECTURE IX. 



further known, tliat tlie tiger of south Asia makes excursions to 

 Siberia, up to the 50 deg. north latitude, and even in regions, 

 as in the Amoor, where the mean temperature in the winter is 

 — 20 deg. R. ; and as we may suppose that the cave tiger was 

 equally enabled to support the cold ; and as even the hyaenas, 

 which inhabit northern Africa, are found on the highest ridges 

 of the Atlas mountains, covered in winter with ice and snow, we 

 are fully justified in concluding, that from the beginning of the di- 

 luvial period there reigned in central Europe a much lower tem- 

 perature than at present, and that the animals, with the increase 

 of heat, at least partially retired northward, following the 

 temperature to which they had been accustomed in central 

 Europe. A considerable portion of central Europe may, at 

 the beginning of the diluvial period, have presented the same 

 aspect as the damp and marshy plains of Poland, Lithuania, 

 and Siberia do now. 



We have to some extent wandei-ed from our subject. In 

 endeavouring to give you a sketch of the society in which the 

 primitive man lived, and showing the conditions in which 

 human remains are found in caves and fissures, I have invo- 

 luntarily digressed to describe the climate of the period which 

 these remains indicate. Let us then return to our starting 

 point, and examine the caves and fissures in relation to the 

 remains they contain. 



History shows that caverns were at all times either places 

 of refuge, or habitations for more or less civilised peoples. The 

 ancients speak of troglodytes, or cave dwellers, in Asia Minor, 

 Greece, and Italy. Christian and heathen assemblies, when 

 subject to persecutions on account of their religion, were held 

 in forests and caverns. Caesar gave orders to his lieutenant 

 Crassus that the Grauls should be shut up in the caverns of 

 Aquitania and destroyed, just as the famous warrior Pelissier 

 smoked out the Arabs who objected to having French civilisa- 

 tion forced on them. 



Certain caves and fissures served as places for execution, the 

 criminals being thrown down and abandoned to a miserable 

 fate ; other caves were used as burial places. Most caves and 

 grottoes serve even now as places of refuge for shepherds in 

 tempestuous weather, or even as temporary dormitories. It is 



