PLEISTOCENE CAVE-DEPOSITS. 117 



capable of occupying the same feeding-grounds as the reindeer, 

 might be as abundant in late Pleistocene times as they ever 

 were at any earlier period. But when we find that the true 

 southern species — the hippopotamus, the elephant, and the 

 rhinoceros — are conspicuous by their absence from the deposits 

 of late Palaeolithic times, it seems more reasonable to suppose 

 that their absence was due rather to changed climatic conditions 

 than to any difficulty the old savages might have had in cap- 

 turing them. All the evidence conspires to show that towards 

 the close of the Old Stone Age the climate of Europe was cold 

 and arctic, so that animals which are now met with only in 

 northern regions, or at high altitudes in alpine districts, occu- 

 pied the low grounds as far south as Perigord in France. The 

 folk of that closing period lived very much in the same way as 

 the Eskimo live now, fishing in the cold waters and hunting in 

 the "barren grounds ;" the refuse of their feasts was allowed to 

 accumulate on the floor of their dwelling-places, and they pro- 

 bably suffered no more inconvenience from the presence of the 

 unsavoury heaps than similarly-circumstanced tribes in our own 

 day. We can picture them to ourselves feasting round their 

 fires on reindeer-flesh, or splitting up the bones and sucking the 

 juicy marrow. At other times, when perhaps reindeer-hunting 

 had proved unsuccessful, they were content to catch such fish 

 as they could in the rivers, or to capture lemmings, weasels, 

 water-rats, and other small animals, and birds. Their tastes do 

 not seem to have been very eclectic, and from the relics of their 

 feasts we gather a pretty fair idea of the mammalian fauna of 

 the lands they lived in. But, as we have seen, they seem to have 

 had no domestic animals, nor have we any reason to believe that 

 they knew anything of agriculture. The potter's art appears 

 likewise to have been unknown. The most distinguishing 

 characteristic of the reindeer -hunters, however, was their love 

 of art, a characteristic which, as we know from the analogy 

 of the living Eskimo, may co-exist with a very low state of 

 civilisation. 



In the earlier stages of the Palaeolithic Period we have 



