CHAPTER XIX 



PREHISTORIC PETTICOATS 



AFTER the last great extension of glaciers in Europe, 

 during which nearly all of Great Britain and the 

 North of France and Germany were buried with 

 Scandinavia under one great ice-sheet — and when this ice- 

 sheet had receded, and the climate was like that of the 

 Russian " steppes,'' cold- and dry — there were men 

 inhabiting the caverns on both sides of the Pyrenees. 

 The 'tract of land which we call " Great Britain" was a 

 part of the Continent of Europe. There was no " English 

 Channel." The Thames and the Rhine opened by a 

 common mouth into the North Sea. The mammoth and 

 the hairy rhinoceros still lingered on in France and the 

 more central regions of Europe. Wild horses, the great 

 ox (Aurochs), the bison, ibex, chamois, were abundant, 

 and the thick-nosed Saiga antelope, now confined to the 

 Russian and Asiatic steppes, was present. The most 

 abundant and important animal immediately north of the 

 Pyrenees was the reindeer. The cave-men of France and 

 Central Europe were a fine race — living by the chase, and 

 fabricating flint knives and scrapers, fine bone spearheads 

 and harpoons, as well as occupying themselves in carving 

 ivory and reindeer antlers, so as to produce highly artistic 

 representations of the animals around them. 



