Other remains of human skulls, appearing to date back to a very ancient
epoch, have been found in various countries, since the discovery of
those above-named. We will mention, a jaw-bone found by M. Édouard
Dupont in the cave of Naulette, near Dinant, in Belgium--a frontal and
parietal bone, extracted from the _Lehm_ in the valley of the Rhine, at
Eggisheim near Colmar, by Dr. Faudel--a skull found by Professor Bocchi,
of Florence, in the Olmo pass, near Arezzo--lastly, the celebrated
jaw-bone from Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, found in 1863 by Boucher
de Perthes, in the _diluvium_, of which bone we have given an
illustration in the introduction to this volume. It is acknowledged by
all anthropologists that this portion of the skull of the man of
Moulin-Quignon bears a perfect resemblance to that of a man of small
size of the present age.
From the small number of skulls which we possess, it is impossible for
us to estimate what was the precise degree of intelligence to be
ascribed to man at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. No one,
assuredly, will be surprised at the fact, that the human skull in these
prodigiously remote ages did not present any external signs of great
intellectual development. The nature of man is eminently improvable; it
is, therefore, easily to be understood, that in the earliest ages of his
appearance on the earth his intelligence should have been of a limited
character. Time and progress were destined both to improve and extend
it; the flame of the first-lighted torch was to be expanded with the
lapse of centuries!
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER, OR OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and
Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements--
Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The principal Caverns--
Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer.
We have now arrived at that subdivision of the stone age which we
designate by the name of the _Reindeer Epoch_, or the _Epoch of migrated
animals_. Many ages have elapsed since the commencement of the
quaternary geological epoch. The mighty animals which characterised the
commencement of this period have disappeared, or are on the point of
becoming extinct. The great bear (_Ursus spelæus_) and the cave-hyæna
(_Hyæna spelæa_) will soon cease to tread the soil of our earth. It will
not be long before the final term will be completed of the existence of
the cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_), the mammoth, and the _Rhinoceros
tichorhinus_. Created beings diminish in size as they improve in type.
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