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which they inhabit. The gradual process of extermination, 
which has continued ever since, had however even then 
begun. 
Taken as a whole, therefore, the animals of the Swiss pile- 
works belong evidently to the fauna which commenced in 
post-tertiary times with the mammoth, the rhinoceros 
tichorhinus, the cave bear, and the fossil hyaena. These 
extinct species appear to have co -existed in Europe with all 
of its present indigenous inhabitants ; it was, indeed, long 
supposed that man belonged to a subsequent period, but re- 
cent investigations have shown that he is no exception to 
the rule. 
While, however, we must regard the fauna of the stone 
age as belonging to the same zoological epoch with that of 
the later drifts on the one hand, and the present time on the 
other ; we cannot forget that the immense time which has 
elapsed since the end of the tertiary period, has produced 
great changes in the fauna of Europe. In this post-tertiary 
era the pile works occupy, so to say, a middle position. Dis- 
tinguished from the present fauna of Switzerland in the pos- 
session of the urus, the bison, the elk, the stag, and the 
wild boar, as well as by the more general distribution of the 
beaver, the bear, the wolf, the ibex, the roe, &c, they differ 
equally from the drift gravels in the absence of the mam- 
moth, the rhinoceros, the cave bear, and the cave hyaena. 
The evidence derived from the distribution of the domestic 
animals is perhaps more satisfactory. The sheep is present 
even at Moosseedorf, though not so numerous as at the Stein- 
berg. On the other hand, the horse is frequent at the 
Steinberg, while at Moosseedorf only a single tooth was 
discovered, and even this had been worn as an amulet or an 
ornament, and may have been brought from a distance. 
Finally, the domestic hog of the present race is absent from 
all the pileworks of the stone period, excepting perhaps 
