ii4 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



Gibraltar, Provence, Mentone, Sicily, and Malta, The Sicilian 

 caves abound in remains of the pigmy hippopotamus, which 

 occurs also very plentifully in the Maltese caves, 1 where it is 

 associated with species of dwarf or pigmy elephant. Kemains 

 of the pigmy hippopotamus have not until recently been obtained 

 in situ on the mainland of Europe. Professor Capellini, how- 

 ever, now records them from the cave of Santa Teresa, near 

 Spezia. 2 Human remains and relics and traces of man's presence 

 occur in various caves in Southern Europe, and there can be no 

 doubt that the ossiferous deposits in those caves are of the same 

 age as the similar accumulations in Central and North-western 

 Europe. 



The facts now briefly passed in review enable us to arrive at 

 certain conclusions which it may be well to sum up before we 

 turn to the next stage in our inquiry. I have already dwelt 

 with sufficient emphasis on the great antiquity of the cave- 

 deposits. This is proved by a variety of considerations, such as 

 the thickness of the stalagmitic pavements, the very considerable 

 changes which were effected in the drainage-systems during the 

 course of the Palaeolithic Period, the great depth to which many 

 valleys were eroded by their streams, so that caves which in 

 early Pleistocene times were liable to constant or intermittent 

 flooding became by and by quite dry, the streams, even when 

 most swollen, being unable any longer to reach the openings 

 into the caverns. Such are some of the more evident proofs of 

 the antiquity of the Old Stone Age. But the changes of climate 

 and physical conditions to which the mammalia bear witness 

 are not less eloquent of the prolonged duration of that remark- 

 able epoch. To whatever cause those climatic mutations may 

 have been due, we cannot believe that they came upon our con- 

 tinent all of a sudden, and then passed as rapidly away. Such 

 great changes are only brought about very gradually, and there- 

 fore they necessarily imply a long lapse of time. But, leaving 



1 The Maltese breccias are referred to more particularly in Chapter XIII. 



2 Mem. delV Accad. delle Scienze delV Istituto di Bologna, Ser. 3. torn. x. 



1879. 



