POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 



559 





until the milder Champlain epoch had set in. In Europe there is 

 not this exclusion of organic remains from the Drift. 



Europe and Asia. — The Quadrupeds of Post-tertiary Europe are a 

 great advance beyond those of the Tertiary period in the proportion 

 and size of the Carnivores. Ca- 

 verns in Britain and Europe were 

 the dens of gigantic Tigers and 

 Hyenas, while Pachyderms and 

 Ruminants, equally gigantic com- 

 pared with modern species, 

 roamed over the continent from 

 the Mediterranean and India to 

 the Arctic seas. The remains are 

 found in the earthy or stalag- 

 mitic floors of caverns ; mired in 

 ancient marshes ; buried in river 

 and lacustrine alluvium, or sea- 

 shore deposits ; or frozen and 

 cased in Arctic ice. 



The most famous of the ca- 

 verns are near Kirkdale, Eng- 

 land, twenty-five miles north- 

 northeast of York, explored by 

 Buckland ; at Bristol, England ; 

 Kent's Cave near Torquay; Gay- 

 lenreuth in Germany. 



The European caves were 

 mostly caves of Bears (the great 

 Ursusspelazus), while those of Eng- 

 land were occupied by Hyenas 

 (Hy<zna spelcea), with few bears. 

 Fig. 836 represents the canine 

 tooth of the Cave Bear. 



At Kirkdale, the Hyena bones 

 and teeth — which belonged to at 

 least seventy-five individuals — 

 were mingled with - remains of 

 extinct species of Elephant,Tiger, 

 Bear, Wolf, Fox, Hare, Weasel, 

 Rhinoceros, Horse, Hippopota- 

 mus, Ox, and Deer, — all of which 

 then populated Britain. The 

 Hyenas hither dragged the dead carcasses they found, and lived on 



Tooth of the Cave Bear. 



