Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-25
existed In the warmer regions Of Asia
and Africa, and in the tropics of Amc j.

existed In the warmer regions Of Asia
and Africa, and In the tropics of AIMEE j.
ca, remains to be discovered But AT
length there came change. The
climate was mitigaled. The casing of
ice was dissolved. and the glaciers re-
luctantly retreated. IL was AT this
time that man made his appearance in
Europe as the contemporary of the
barry elephant and rhinoceros, and OF
the great carnivorous animals After
the lapse of time, whose interval can
not be measured, there ensued another
period of refrigeration, but of shorter
duration. The glaciers again advanced.
flood succeeded, which covered the
low lands and the caves. and forced the
cave-dwelers to withdraw to the higher
grounds. In Belgium, the water, ac-
cording to Dumont, rose To the height
of four hundred and fifty feet. The
cacareous mud and gravelly clay which
fill many of the valleys of France and
Belgium, and known as Loess, attest
the retreat OF this flood. The bone
earth which forms the division, in
many OF the caves, between two distinct
faune, is also referred to this inunda-
ton. AT this era commenced
1.-The Reindeer Epoch, OF that of the
migrated existing animals. While the
reindeer existed during the preceding
epoch, yet from the great abundance of
his remains in the caves of Dordogne,
Aude, and other parts of the south of
France, M. Lartet inferred that he re-
appeared in greatly augmented num-
bers. The elephant still survived.
There were also the aurochs Olson eu-
rop9us), the horse (ancestor of the
present race, the wild OK (Bos primi-
genius), the musk-ox Co. moschatus).
the Irish stag (Megaceros hibernicus),
the elk &C.. alces), and the roebuck
&C.. dama), together with the goat and
chamois, and smaller quadrupeds.
''Scanty as are the materials, Euro
pean ethnologists have not hcstated to
generalize upon the condition of the
prehistoric man during these two
epochs. He was barbarian, and low
in intellect and development; a small
brain, retreating forehead, and pro-
jecting jaws, with great superciliary
ridges. the result, perhaps, of the wari-
ness which he was compelled TO eXer-
else. He was short in stature. but
robust and broad-shouldered, for the
exposures to which he was subjected
sifted out the week and diseased. He
was raw flesh eater, for in many of
the jaws which have been disinterred
the lncisors are much worn-a peculi
ty which has been observed in the flesh
eating Esquimaux. This fact ought
not to be cited to his disadvantage, for
in an Arctic climate, where the heat is
so rapidly extracted, the system re-
quires highly heterogeneous food. Our
own countryman, Kane, when inn
prisoned by the ice in Rensselaer, Har-
Der, bears witness that nothing was SO
grateful TO the appetite as raw walrus
meat. He was canibal, for in Scot
land Owen found upon the bones of
children the MARKS of human teeth,
and the same fact was brought out at
the Copenhagen congress. The con-
ditions of climate rendered agriculture
impracticable, but at the same time the
soil sustained a class of vegetation
adapted to the support of the higher
orders of quadrupeds; hence he must
have been hunter and fisherman. In
his physical development and habits,
the result of his conflict with circum-
stances, he must have approached the
Esquimaux more nearly than any other
OF the existing types
THE subject of the next article will be the
In luence of the Ice age in the development
of the races and their progress.