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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
gress towards civilization. They were people of known races, 
and in many cases their descent and origin may he traced. 
Once or twice, however, it has happened that the mud of the 
caverns has yielded yet ruder, much less useful, hut even more 
interesting, human remains. Mixed up with the hones of the 
great cavc-hear, the huge cavern-hyama, the elephant, and the 
rhinoceros, and weather-worn like other stones of the same 
material, there have heen found numerous flint and other stone 
weapons buried under stalagmite, affording unmistakable proof 
that a far more ancient race of men — savages of whose origin 
and history we know absolutely nothing — must have preceded 
the men of the historic period by a number of years quite 
unmeasurable. That this time was very great is probable ; but 
nothing 1 more can be said as to its amount. That it was 
sufficient to allow of the destruction of numerous races of 
gigantic quadrupeds and the introduction of many new groups, 
may be said to be certain. 
The objects thus found are simple ; and they have been met 
with much more plentifully in gravel-beds than in caverns. In 
both positions, however, they tell the same tale. They are 
flints, or other hard stones, chipped by human hands into a 
form believed to be meant for arrow or spear heads. Occasion- 
ally, flakes or fragments of flint broken off by a single blow, or 
a little more elaborately prepared, are mixed with them. They 
are weathered and whitened like other fragments of similar 
mineral found near them in the same bed, bearing no marks of 
haring been artificially broken. 
One result would seem certain from these discoveries in 
caverns ; namely, that some members of the human race 
lived long enough ago to have seen the singular group of 
gigantic quadrupeds briefly described in a former paragraph, 
and to have fought with them : they may even have inhabited 
similar caves. 
On the other hand, however, it is equally clear that these 
large animals may have lingered in many parts of the world to a 
comparatively recent date. There is no positive evidence one 
way or the other. That it would take long to expunge from the 
world some of the largest tribes, and replace them by others, is 
probable, but not certain ; and when it is considered that even 
up to the present time we are by no means sure whether the 
gigantic bird of New Zealand (the Dinornis or Moci) is really 
an existing or extinct species, the danger of dogmatizing on 
the absolute date of the final destruction in Europe of the bear, 
hyaena, elephant, rhinoceros, or huge antlered elk, is apparent. 
Still, the association of man with such animals as those we 
have alluded to in the places where their bones are found is 
a phenomenon that does not seem to be confined even to the 
