﻿FELIS SPEL^EA. 171 



year 1710 is evidence of the sparse population and the uncivilised habits of the people in 

 that island. 



To this incessant warfare with man the retreat of the Lion from Europe may be attri- 

 buted, and not to any want of food or to any climatal change. The winter cold of Mount 

 Pindus and of the Balkans could not have been much less severe than that of the Pyrenees, 

 the Vosges, or the Mendips ; and the herds of Bison, Uri, and Elks that dwelt in the 

 great Hercynian Forest that overshadowed the greater part of Germany in Prehistoric 

 and Historic times were at least as well suited to become the prey of the Lions as any 

 to be met with in the mountains of Thessaly or Macedonia. 



§ 5. Conclusion. We have now briefly to sum up the results of our labours. Up to 

 the present time Felis spelaa has been considered by various naturalists an extinct animal 

 allied to the Lion, Tiger, or Jaguar. By a careful comparison of the remains of the 

 animal, bone by bone, with those of the larger living Felidse, we have arrived at the fact 

 that it is specially identical with the Lion of Africa and Asia. Its range, both in space 

 and time, has been determined so far as the materials at our command would allow ; and 

 lastly, the approximate date of its disappearance from Europe has been fixed by an appeal 

 to the literature of Greece and Rome, 



