Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/34

Rh Italy and Sicily, and perhaps also at Natchez, in Mississippi. It is well known that the modern lion now inhabits only warm countries; it is therefore a matter of surprise that its predecessor should have been found associated with animals which are never met with in warm countries. It must be remembered, however, that a species nearly allied to the lion, the royal tiger, in the course of its pursuit after prey presses forward even to the 62nd degree of north latitude, and that the larger species of cats are generally very easily acclimatised, and thus what was at the first moment surprising falls to the ground. The lion inhabited Europe in historic times, for Herodotus tells us that the camels belonging to the army of Xerxes were attacked by lions in Thessaly.

Four right and two left under-jaws and two fragments of the upper-jaw of the Gulo luscus, or glutton, were found in the cave, one of which came from the lowest bed of the red relic-bed; and this may be looked upon as a proof of the great antiquity of this animal. At the present time it lives only in the northern parts of the Old and New World, while in earlier ages it was found much further south. It was the deadliest enemy of the reindeer, so that it may be taken for granted that in the pursuit of its prey it wandered together with it towards the northern regions. Its appearance in the neighbourhood of the cave at Thayngen would not create a pleasant sensation in the minds of its inhabitants.

Even the bear (Ursus arctos) was not wanting amongst this mixed company. We have however found only a very few teeth, and parts of the skeleton, and one almost perfect upper-jaw. We can only trace the parts belonging to two or three individuals. The rapid advance of civilisation has very much limited the spread of this animal, so that it will soon have to be considered as an exceptional straggler in Europe. It is known that the bear is occasionally met with in the Alps of Wallis, and the Grisons. In early times it was widely distributed in Europe. Its remains are found in the Swabian caves together with those of the cave-bear, of which there is not the smallest trace in the Kesslerloch. Yet the common bear at that time was of rare occurrence, as most of the cave 'finds' show; it appears not to have been found in any great abundance till the cave-bear, which was much greater and stronger, had given place to it.

The Rodentia were another order of animals found in the cave. A radius of the marmot (Arctomys marmota) and innumer-