98 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
SESS. 
presence of the bones of these two animals in the debris of 
this rock - shelter was alone sufficient to prove that the climate 
of the period was of an arctic character. In the upper portion 
of this deposit relics of new animals, indicating a change to a 
sub - arctic climate, began to appear, and had their greatest 
development in the next succeeding layer. 
The result of careful analysis of the contents of the other 
deposits showed that this arctic fauna became ultimately dis- 
placed by the true forest fauna of the Neolithic period. Among 
the newcomers were the badger, wild cat, hare, Urus, Bos longi- 
frons, goat and sheep ; while of those represented in the Palae- 
olithic deposit a large number was absent. Thus both the 
arctic and sub-arctic fauna had given way to a forest fauna, 
and, synchronous with these changes, the Palaeolithic hunters 
and reindeer vanished from the district. 
Among the few art specimens found at the Schweizersbild is 
a stone tablet, having rude outlines of a wild ass and of a 
reindeer incised upon it. The whole collection, among which 
were 14,000 worked flints, 180 fragments of bone needles, 41 
whistles, 42 pierced ornaments made of si i ells and of the teeth 
of the arctic fox, glutton, etc., is typical of the latest phase of 
Palaeolithic civilisation of the Dordogne caves. 
The chronological deductions founded on the investigations at 
the Schweizersbild are, from their very nature, more or less 
hypothetical. But, after all allowances for possible errors are 
made, I can see no objection to Dr Niiesch’s lowest estimate of 
the date of man’s first appearance into Northern Switzerland, 
viz., 20,000 years ago.* 
I now proceed to exhibit some illustrations selected from the 
evidential materials on which the opinions and conclusions ad- 
vocated in this address are founded. The slides are arranged 
in two series, corresponding to the two lines of research on 
which, as mentioned in the preliminary remarks, anthropological 
investigations are most usually conducted. Afterwards I will 
add some further comments on the phase of human civilisation 
thus so singularly resurrected from the lumber-room of oblivion. 
* See Neue Denkschriften der allgemeinen schweizerischen Gesellschaft fur 
die gesammten Natuncissensdiaften, vol. xxxv. 
