The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-24
MAN IN THE EARLY ACES.
How He Lived and Procured Food
Thousands Of Years
Ago.
His First Dwelling Place Was I'm
doubtedly a Cave in the
Rocks.
The Reindeer His Chief Dependence for
Food, Though the Horse, Ok, Elk
and hex Helped Him.

Although hundreds of thousands of years
AVE certainly elapsed since that epoch
when primeval man occupied western Eu-
rope in company with the reindeer and
other animals which have in these later
days reiterated to the Arctic, says the Wash
ington Star, 30 much has been ascertnined
by science respecting him that one can act
ually look back through the ages and be-
hold this remote ancestor of the human race
rs he lived and pursued his daily avoca-
tions. The great glacial period had come
to an end and the mighty animals with
which his own distant progenitors had been
obliged to contend-the great cave bear,
twice az big as q grizzly, the cave lion, the
mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros and the
saber-toothed tiger-were fast becoming
extinct. 1t was still very cold, else what is
now France could not have been occupied
by reindeer as plentifully distributed
as arc now sheep in the same
region, and by the musk OK, the chamois,
the wild goat and the lemming, all of
which have been driven by the increasing
warmth OF subsequent seasons to the icy
north or to the frigid mountain tops. Not
having acquired the art of building, man
WdS ptiRSA W Al jill IA liz
selecting BY preference a hole in the rocks
with q very narrow opening, which could
only be entered by climbing. Thus he not
only obtained shelter, hut endered himself
secure against attacks by wild beasts. When
he took up his abode in a level and ION
mountainous country he WAS compelled to
construct artificial caves for himself by
gathering stones together. or, for want of a
cavern, if an overhanging cliff could be
found, he helped out this natural protec-
ton with rocks, and thus made Il
convenient retreat. Very many of these
ancient open-air statements have been
discovered, which, from the remains found,
are known to have bean occupied bv faml-
lies or tribes, the stone tools and other OBJ
jects found with them demonstrating their
extreme antiquity. Also some reckoning
can be formed approximately to the num-
Der of centuries required for the deposit of
the strata cows ing up these relics.
Such retreats We e usually situated i'll n
valley near II running stream. Like the
c%ayerns, they contain great deposits of
bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, Ms
well AZ tools and weapons OF bono ana stone.
The hea,ths are also found, on which tho
primeval people cooked their food, with
quantities of ashes from fires that burned
30 many years. ngo. These hearths were
made from slabs of very hard rock, such
rs sandstone or slHte beaded down
solidly in the ground. Man durinG
that epoch had no notion of agr,-
culture. He had not Ms yet domestioatsd
anv animal so ms to profit by it' strength,
or to insure by it's means Il constant supply
of food. He was, therefore, a hunter and
depended for hia sustenance upon the wild
beasts which he was able to kill with spears
and arrows. The eindeer was tho creature
he chiefly depended upon for meat. 1t was
TO him what II is at present to the Lnpiand-
ers, the most precious gift of nature. He
vi its skin, utilizing its tendona Oh threads