The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-02

Gent inhabitants of Europe were sur.
rounded by animals which have been in
the historical period peculiar to Asia anG
Africa-by elephants, rhinoceroses, lions
hy@nas, and even hippopotami. The
grizzly bear, too, of North America once
roamed m the forests of Europe, and
herds of reindeer browsed on the north.
ern slopes of the Pyrenees. The rein
deer at this epoch was exceedingly abun.
dant in temperate ATTITUDES, as is proved
by the great number of bones and antlers
belonging to this animal found in the
caves OF Great Britain and France. In
one of the Welsh caves, called Bosco's
Den, no less than one thousand or twelve
hundred antlers of reindeer were found
while in the Kirkdale Cave, in England
Cuvier estimated that the remains found
represented $500 cave-bears Ga bear
nearly allied to, if not Identical with, the
grizzly bear.)
The contemporaneity of man with the
reindeer in Southern France is proved
by drawings of the reindeer on bone and
stone found in the Dordogne caves.
Drawings and carvings of other extinct
animals are found in the same caves, and
at the Kesslerloch on the borders OF
Switzerland. At the cave of La Made
lelne, M. Lartet, we believe it was found
the sketch of mammoth, executed on
tusk of that animal.
The British Lion is not mere myth :.
the remains of very large lion, called
the cave-lion, have been found in num-
Der of caves in England, associated with
implements of stone and bone. Its roar
was once familiar sound on the Mendip
Hills and the coasts of Devonshire.
When these discoveries were first made
the conclusion was hastily drawn, that as
these animals have all been long extinct
IN these regions, the continent of Europe
must have been inhabited by man many
thousands of years ago.
We know, however, that the lion was
found in Europe in historical times. 1t
is related by Herodotus that lions at
tackled the army of Xerxes in the noun
tains OF Thessaly, and indeed its exist
ence in Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace
as late as the Christian era is attested by
lillian and Pausanias. So the reindeer
is described In Caesars Commentaries as
existing IN his day in the Hercynian For
est, and the same fact is mentioned by
Sallust. In the north of Scotland, as we
learn from Torfeus, the reindeer was
hunted as late as the twelfth century by
the Norwegian jarls, who crossed the sea
to Scotland for that purpose.
We know also that in the days of Alex
ander the Great the hippopotamus was
found in northern India, the fact being
mentioned in the letter written by him,
during his expedition to that country, to
Aristotle.
The elephant too is mentioned by both
Pliny and Strabo as abundant in their
day in Northern Africa, and especially in
Mauritania, just opposite the coasts of
Spain.
We know also now from Egyptian and
Assyrian monuments that this animal
was common in the Tigris valley as late
as 900 B.
We have been reminded of these facts
by seeing the following passage in late
number of the New York independent,
with regard to the recent existence of the
mastodon in the United States. The evil
dence is important because it contradicts
the assumption of the great antiquity of
man as based on his contemporaneity
with the great extinct animals. The
mere fact that there are no elephants in
Europe and America now does not prove
that there were none here few thousand
years ago.
The existence of the mastodon in North
America must have been more recent than COM
monty supposed. A number of new facts bear
ing on this subject are to be found in Professor
John Collects Geological Report of Indiana
Tor $780," recently issued. OF the thirty in.
dividual specimens Of the remains of the mas
iodon (MastOdon giganteus) found in Indiana
in almost every case very considerable part of
The skeleton of each animal proved to be in
Iauo az al & III