SOME PREHISTORIC ANIMALS 335 



What must have been the strength of a colossus 

 carrying between its lips a weight of nine hundred 

 pounds as easily as a cat carries the hairs of its 

 mustaches ! 



"Man was already in existence at the time of the 

 mammoth. Armed with sharp flint-stones and bone- 

 pointed arrows, he made bold to attack the enormous 

 animal whose weight made the earth tremble. He 

 hunted it in the chase and feasted on its flesh. What 

 a piece of game when the giant fell into the deep 

 ditch masked by a light covering of boughs and 

 foliage! The victim was then overwhelmed with 

 masses of rock, after which there was an intermin- 

 able banquet for the whole tribe. 



"Let us go no further, but merely say in conclu- 

 sion that the animals of to-day are not the same as 

 those of former ages. Long before the present 

 species on land and in the sea, there gradually made 

 their appearance other very different forms of an- 

 imal life, which have now become extinct. Nowhere 

 on the earth are there now living any creatures like 

 those that have left their fossil remains for our in- 

 spection." 



