From a drawing by Charles R. Knight 

 A CONTEMPORARY OF THE HEIDELBERG MAN, LONG SINCE EXTINCT: THE WOOLLY 

 RHINOCEROS TICHORHINUS, PLEISTOCENE 



The woolly rhinoceros (Pleistocene), a European form found frozen in Siberian ice 

 fields. This singular creature, like the mammoth, was covered with long reddish wool, which 

 served as an effective protection against the bitter cold of its native home (see page 119). 



In Osborn's book for the first time 

 everything is put together — geology, 

 paleography, the known climatic changes, 

 the plant life, including the succession 

 and migrations of the various floras : the 

 animal life, including the succession and 

 migration of the various great mammal- 

 ian faunas; and finally what is known of 

 ancient man himself in these surround- 

 ings. 



WHEN THE BRITISH ISLES WERE PART OF 

 FRANCE AND THE BALTIC A FRESH- 

 WATER LAKE 



During the immense period of time 

 when the Old Stone man dwelt in west- 

 ern Europe it was, as now, a peninsula 

 of the huge Eurasiatic landmass. Again 

 and again it was partially covered by 

 ice-sheets from different centers of dis- 

 persal, chiefly the Alps and the region 

 that includes what is now the Baltic 

 Peninsula. 



Slowly the land rose and fell. It was 

 connected and disconnected by narrow 

 land bridges with Africa. When the land 

 encroached on the sea the British Islands 

 became part of France and Flanders, and 

 the Rhine and the Seine were huge rivers, 

 compared to which the present-day Rhine 

 and Seine look like brooks. The Baltic 

 became a fresh-water lake. Then, again, 

 the ocean recovered its own and extended 

 far beyond its present limits. These 

 changes were not cataclysms ; probably 

 changes as great are at this moment going 

 on in the world. But to human percep- 

 tions such earth movements are so grad- 

 ual as to be impossible of notice by any 

 individual or generation. 



UNLIKE ASIA AND THE AMERICAS, EUROPE 

 DID NOT ORIGINATE BEASTS OR MEN 



These climatic and geographic oscilla- 

 tions perhaps explain the apparent fact 

 that Europe was not a center of origin 



116 



