Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/73

Rh front. Besides this, it may be taken for granted that when the climate was cold there could be no very great quantity of water. The land was in fact in a great measure covered with glaciers. At length the great mass of waters, evidently caused by the altered warmth of the climate melting the ice, broke through the dam, and poured in two streams to Schaffhausen, on one side by Stein, and on the other by Thayngen. Certainly no gravel from this flood has been found inside the Kesslerloch; but this may arise from the peculiar character at that time of the land in the immediate neighbourhood. But when the stream had cut for itself a deeper channel than that near Thayngen, the water from the lake ran in this deeper channel, the water flowing from Radolphzell lake ceased to run, the valley became dry, and took its present form and size. From what has been said we may conclude that our cave was inhabited at a time when glaciers stretched far into Northern Switzerland. This period has been designated the 'Glacier Age.'

Whence they came—whither they went—these representatives of a people of long past ages—whether they followed the reindeer, which gradually withdrew into higher latitudes, or whether they were ejected by other conditions of nature unknown to us—who will venture to say? Only an unwearied investigation in this department will enable us to throw more light on the prehistoric age. Since then, mankind has pressed forward in every department of science and knowledge. This is known to us all. But the advance in its true magnitude is only recognised by us when we study such a portion of the history of civilisation as is presented to us in the Kesslerloch.