Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/29

Rh the same period. If it be true that these Troglodytes kept domestic cattle, how is it that we have but two phalanges? In all probability these bones, when the upper covering was removed, had inadvertently got mixed with those from the relic-bed, and if so, are of the age of the lake-dwellings, for that the human representatives of this latter period knew of this cave and occupied it, at any rate temporarily, is shown by the fragment of pottery found in the uppermost covering (Plate XIII. fig. 80), which is made of the same material as the pottery found in the lake-dwellings. Consequently it is not improbable that these bones may be comparatively modern, and may date from the age of the lake-dwellings. Or is it possible, in case these two phalanges really came from the relic-bed, that they may have belonged to the musk-ox or sheep, which is well known to be one of the smallest of the tribe, and which lives in the dreary waste of Tundra, and consequently is the genuine representative of a cold climate? A piece of sculpture, which will shortly be described, gives some grounds for this idea.

The two stately and beautiful inhabitants of the Alps, the chamois (Capella rupicapra), and the ibex (Capra ibex), have left in the cave some very few remains as proofs of their having formerly inhabited the neighbourhood of Thayngen. Of one of these animals there was found the horn-core, and of the other probably a dozen teeth and a humerus. Both are well-known genuine types of the dwellers in our highest mountains; they seldom descend to the lower hills or the plains, probably from fear of the hunter, and perhaps from the nature of the climate. From the very few remains of these two animals in the cave, I can hardly, for my part, conclude that they were rarities to these Troglodytes. It is rather to be supposed that at that time they were found in tolerable plenty on the Jura Mountains of the borders and their spurs, but, on account of their rapid flight to the very highest points, they were difficult to secure; it is probably on this account that we find these animals so rare even at the foot of the Alps, in the heights at Salève, and Villeneuve. It will not be long before the ibex will be an extinct animal; in fact it is no longer found in Switzerland. It is probably not the climate which has driven it away from our borders, but the fact of its being incessantly hunted by man. At all events, the presence of both these animals' remains in the cave of Thayngen indicates an Alpine climate in the district at that period.

The order of Pachydermata is represented by the mammoth