249 
and belongs evidently to a far later age than that of the cele- 
brated stone hatchets, which were first made known to us by 
the genius and perseverance of M. Boucher de Perthes. 
Instead of the elephant and rhinoceros we find in the 
later or second stone period, in that namely of the Kjokken- 
modding and " Pfahlbauten," the urus and bison, the elk 
and the red deer, already installed as monarchs of the forests. 
The latter indeed, with the boar, appears to have been very 
frequent, and to have formed a most important article of food 
to the Lake-dwellers. 
The aurochs or European bison, seems to have disappeared 
from Western Europe even earlier than the urus. There is no 
historical record of its existence in England or Scandinavia. 
We have no notice of the existence of the elk in Switzerland 
during the historical period. At present it inhabits Prussia 
and Lithuania, Finland and Russia, Scandinavia and Siberia, 
to the shores of the Amoor. The ibex disappeared from 
most of the Swiss Alps, perhaps not much later than the elk. 
It lingered longest in the West. The extermination of the 
bear, like that of the ibex, seems to have begun in the East, 
and not yet to be complete. The fox, the otter, and the 
different species of weasels are still the common carnivora 
of Switzerland, and the wild cat, the badger, and the wolf 
still occur in the Jura and the Alps, the latter in cold winters 
venturing even into the plains ; the beaver on the contrary 
has at last disappeared. The roedeer still occurs in some 
places. 
The fauna thus indicated is certainly very much what 
might have been expected. We find most of the species 
which characterise the post-tertiary epoch in Europe. Some 
of the larger ones have since fallen away in the struggle for 
existence, and others are becoming rarer and rarer every ) r ear, 
while some maintain themselves even now, thanks only to the 
inclemency and inaccessibility of the mountainous regions 
s2 
