74 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
between the fourth and fifth strata. The strata over 
the black zone were unbroken ; the skeleton which lay 
in the fifth stratum was evidently the remains of a man 
who had lived on the old land surface, had sat round 
the ancient hearths, and ultimately had been laid in a 
superficial grave before the upper four strata had been 
deposited. That was the only reasonable explanation of 
the facts. 
The question which then presented itself to Mr Cook ^ 
was : How old is that land surface ? He collected all 
the flints and animal remains which were to be found on 
it and below it. The assemblage of implements represent, 
in the opinion of experts — of M. I'Abbe Breuil, Mr 
Reginald Smith, Mr Reid Moir — a "late cave period," 
which may mean one anywhere between the Aurignacian 
and Azilian cultures mentioned in the last chapter. 
Further discoveries point definitely to the age of the 
Hailing hearths as Aurignacian — the same age as Paviland 
and Cromagnon — and therefore lying well within the 
Pleistocene period. The Hailing man thus falls in a 
closing phase of the Ice age. 
It is important, before inquiring into the physical 
appearance of the Hailing man, to fix as nearly as possible 
his horizon in time. The flint implements which were 
found in and round the hearths, covering the land 
surface under which he was buried, suggest the Aurignacian 
period. The carvings in bone and in ivory, the necklaces 
of perforated shell and tooth, which characterise this 
period were not found. If the date is such as has been 
suggested, then in those brick earths of the terrace we 
should find remains of extinct animals, such as the 
mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and reindeer. The 
remains actually found are those of a horse, of a sheep 
or goat, and of a rhinoceros. The radius of the rhinoceros 
is mineralised to a much greater degree than the other 
bones ; it evidently has been derived from an older 
deposit. In the opinion of Dr A. Irving, the remains 
' In his geological investigations Mr Cook had the help of an expert 
geologist, Mr J. A. BuUbrook. 
