HUMAN CAVE-DWELLERS. 17 



Many of the beasts they hunted are no longer found 

 upon the earth. The great hairy mammoth and early 

 elephant, much larger than any now existing, together 

 with the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros, roamed 

 through the valleys and along the rivers, and enor- 

 mous bears and tigers preyed upon them. These 

 early savages were cannibals, but besides the chase 

 hved principally upon shellfish. Great heaps of shells 

 of the mollusks they Uved upon are yet found, as 

 well as the charred bones of the beasts they ate. 



The rudest form of habitation next to a natural 

 cave is a burrow, and the first advance toward civili- 

 zation on the part of the cave-dwellers seems to have 

 been the construction of underground habitations. 

 Some of these still exist in England, Scotland, and 

 other parts of Europe. Many are little better than 

 mere holes in the earth ; such are the dugouts made 

 in the sides of hills by emigrants to Kansas, New 

 Mexico, and California, but most of these are only de- 

 signed for temporary use, and are abandoned for more 

 comfortable cabins as soon as such can be built. The 

 natives of cold countries often construct subterranean 

 or partly subterranean dwellings, seeking refuge from 

 the intense cold winds that prevail on the surface ; 

 and the natives of tropical lands have frequently done 

 the same thing to escape the intense heat above- 

 ground. 



