J. P. MacLean

The glaciers have departed. Summer comes again. The forests bloom and the wild beast roams about. Many species withstood the long siege of cold; others perished; still others followed the ice as it retreated, preferring the cold to the coming heat. The floods had abated and man spread himself over the different tracts blooming with flowers and radiant with earthly splendors.

The evidences of man's existence during this period are numerous, consisting in works of art and fossil remains. Only a few examples are given, as not many will be required to present the evidence and show man's condition.

The hyena-den at Wokey Hole, explored by Mr. Dawkins, affords specimens of the works of man. When discovered this den was filled to the roof with dÉbris. Under this rubbish was found several layers of the excrement of the cave-hyena (H. spelÆa), each of which indicates an old floor and a separate period of occupation.

The implements were under these layers of excrement, showing that the cave had been occupied by the hyenas after the time of the savages. These implements had not been disturbed by the action of water. In the bone earth along with the remains of the cave-hyena were found those of the mammoth, Siberian rhinoceros, (R. tichorrhinus), gigantic ox (Bos primigenius), gigantic Irish deer (Megaceros Hibernicus), reindeer, cave-bear, cave-lion (Felis spelÆa), wolf (Canis lupus), fox (Canis vulpes), and the teeth and bones of the horse in great numbers. Intermixed with these bones were chipped flints, a bleached flint weapon of the spear-head Amiens type, and arrow-heads made of bone.

On the right is shown the megatherium. This animal belonged to the sloth tribe, and was a native of South America. It exceeded in size the largest rhinocerous, and the length of its skeleton sometimes attained eighteen feet. In front, near the centre, is the glyptodon another South American animal of the armadillo tribe. The length of its shell, along the curve, was five feet, and the total length of the animal, nine feet. Just back of the glypodon, and holding on to a tree, is the mylodon, belonging to both North and South America, one species of which was much larger than the western buffalo. On the left, and in the rear, is the mastodon, the remains of which are found in both North and South America, though of different species. While this scene does not represent the animals with which we are dealing, yet the general features give an idea of those with which we are interested.

In the cavern of Maccagnone, in Sicily, there were found ashes and rude flint implements in a breccia containing the bones of the elephant (E. antiquus), hyena, a large bear, lion, (probably F. spelÆa), and large numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. The concrete of ashes had once filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still cemented to the roof.

The vast number of hippopotamuses implies that the physical condition of the country was different from what it is at present. The bone breccia cemented to the roof, and coated with stalagmite, testifies that the cave, at some time since the formation of the breccia, has been washed out. The exact time of the formation of this breccia cannot be given, but, in all probability, not long after the extinction of the cave-bear, if not before.

The cave or grotto of Aurignac, in which the seventeen human skeletons were found, was carefully examined by Lartet eight years after its discovery. The recess was formed in nummulitic limestone. In front of the grotto, and next to the limestone (c, Fig. 12) was a layer of ashes and charcoal, eight inches thick, containing hearth-stones, works of art, and broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and recent mammalia. Immediately above this layer (d) was another, of made ground, two feet thick, extending into the grotto; and its contents similar to the other, save that within the grotto were found a few human bones. The grotto was closed by a slab, and the made earth without was covered by a talus of rubbish (e), washed down from the hill above.

In these layers were found not less than one hundred flint instruments, consisting of knives, projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and a stone made for the purpose of modelling the flints. The bone implements were barbless arrows, a well-shaped and sharply pointed bodkin made of the horn of the roe-deer, and other tools made of reindeer horn. Besides these there were found eighteen small round and flat plates, of a white shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (cardium), pierced through the middle; also the tusk of a young cave-bear, the crown of which had been carved in imitation of the head of a bird.

The following is a list of the different species found in the layers, together with the approximate number of individuals belonging to each:

I.—CARNIVORA.

II.—HERBIVORA.

The bones on the outside of the grotto were found to be split open, as if for the extraction of the marrow, and many of them burned. The spongy parts were wanting, having been gnawed off by the hyenas.

M. Lartet came to the conclusion that this grotto was a place of sepulchre, and the broken or split bones were the remnants of the funeral feasts. This he argued from the fact that the bones within the grotto were not split, broken or gnawed, save the astragalus of the mammoth. This meat was placed in the grotto, probably as an offering to the dead. The bones without the cave were scraped, and while the men were yet engaged in the funeral feast, the hyenas prowled about the spot, and at the close of the banquet, devoured the flesh that remained. The slab in front of the cave debarred their entrance, and consequently the bones and human remains within were left untouched.

The observations made by M. Cartailhac, in 1870, lead to different conclusions. On close inspection, he discovered a difference in the color of the walls of the cave, indicating that the lower deposit was of a yellow color, and the next above of a much lighter tint. In the crevices of the lower he found a tooth of the rhinoceros, one of the reindeer, and some fractured bones of the cave-bear. In the higher deposit occurred some small bones of living animals and of man, and a fragment of pottery. From these evidences, M. Cartailhac inferred that the lower deposits of the grotto corresponded with that outside of it, and the layer containing human bones was formed at a subsequent time.

That this grotto was a place of resort at a very early period is proven from the numerous remains of the cave-bear. This animal was one of the first of those great post-tertiary mammalia to become extinct. The exact position of the remains of the reindeer is not given. If its bones were intermixed with the others and found in the lowest as well as the other layers, it would indicate that the climate was not very warm during the deposit of the layers, but to have been similar to that of Switzerland of the present day. The probability is, the reindeer bones did not occur in the lowest layer, and hence that layer was formed during the tropical climate, and the reindeer bones and human skeletons were consigned to the grotto about the close of the inter-glacial, or beginning of the reindeer epoch.

The fossil man of Denise, taken from an old volcanic tuff, must be assigned to this period, since there have been found, in similar blocks of tuff in the same region, the remains of the cave-hyena and hippopotamus major. This fossil man consists of a frontal part of the skull, the upper jaw, with teeth, belonging to both an adult and young individual; a radius, some lumbar vertebrÆ, and some metatarsal bones. The tuff is light and porous, and none of the bones penetrate into the more compact rock.

In the rubbish heap, or reindeer station, at the source of the Schusse, there were discovered more than six hundred split flints, with a quantity of partly worked antlers and bones of the reindeer. The bones were so numerous that Mr. Oscar Fraas was enabled to put together a complete skeleton of the reindeer which is now preserved in the museum of Stuttgart. Most of the bones were split open for the purpose of extracting the marrow. There were numerous remains of fishes, and a fish-hook manufactured from reindeer horn. There were also the bones of other animals, such as the glutton, arctic fox, and other animals now living in high northern latitudes.

Speaking of this station, Dr. Buchner says, "Not only the careful investigations of the geognostic conditions of the place, but also the flora of the time (for remains of mosses were found which now live only in the extreme north), leave no doubt that the reindeer station on the Schusse belongs to the glacial epoch, or that it probably belongs exactly to the interval between the two glacial epochs which in all probability Switzerland has experienced. Mr. E. Desor declared this deposit to be the terminal moraine of the Rhine-glacier, which was formerly very large. Moreover, according to him, this discovery is particularly remarkable, because it is the first example of a station of the reindeer-men in a free and open deposit, their remains having hitherto been found only in caves."[62]

From the remarks of Dr. Buchner, the great number of bones of the reindeer, and some show of advancement in the arts, it may be safe to conclude that this station belongs to the close of the inter-glacial.