The Meeting-Place of Geology and HistoryDawson, John William, Sir
Religion
The Meeting-Place of Geology and History
Dawson, John William, Sir
Deluge; Prehistoric peoples
On the lowest of these, or the first in order of age, were found
numerous skeletons and detached bones of the cave lion and the cave
bear; the former a possible ancestor of the lion of Western Asia, the
latter closely allied to the grizzly bear of North America, but both
entirely extinct in Europe. One of the skeletons of the lion was of
unusually large size, and so complete that when set up it forms the
principal ornament of the cave collection in the Brussels Museum.
[Illustration: CAVE OF GOYET, BELGIUM (section after Dupont)
1 to 5, layers of clay deposited in the mammoth ages]
The next surface, the second in order of time, had a greater variety of
animal remains. The lion had disappeared, and instead hyenas haunted the
cave, and had dragged in animal bones to be gnawed. These included
remains of the cave bear, wolf, rhinoceros, mammoth, wild horse, wapiti,
Irish stag, chamois, reindeer, wild ox, besides several smaller animals.
The above animals are now all unknown in the fauna of modern Europe,
except the reindeer, the chamois, and the wolf. But the most remarkable
discovery on this surface was that of a few human bones, gnawed like the
others by the hyenas. Man was thus already in the country, and
contemporary with all these animals. How the hyena obtained his bones,
whether from some neglected corpse or from some badly-constructed grave,
will never be known; but the discovery introduces us to a tribe or
family of men coming as immigrants into a region already stocked with
many great quadrupeds. They probably did not yet dwell in caves, which,
at a later and perhaps more inclement period, formed their homes. Dupont
concludes from the condition of the bones that on both the older
surfaces the cave bear was the later tenant, and had replaced the lion
on the first and the hyena on the second.
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