Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/75

Rh Thus in the lowest deposits at Chelles the fauna included Elephas antiquus, E. meridionalis. Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros merckii, Trogontherium, cave-bear and cave-hyæna. These animals were survivals of the Pliocene Age, and their presence in any locality indicates a warm climate.

The same species of animals have also been found in the lower deposits of the valleys of the Somme and Thames. When, however, we examine the animal remains of the inhabited caves of the Moustérien epoch, we find that the first five of the above-named animals were no longer represented, but instead of them were remains of the mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear and cave-hyæna.

During the earlier part of the Magdalénien epoch the fauna was chiefly represented by the mammoth (sparingly), reindeer, horse, wild cattle, etc. But the mammoth soon left the neighbourhood, retiring to Siberia, doubtless with the hope of adapting his hereditary modus Vivendi to Arctic conditions of life. The experiment was, however, unsuccessful, as he soon succumbed to the severity of the climate, and, sad to relate, the last lingering individuals of the species met the fate of extinction by being frozen in ice, where their carcases are still to be found. With the final amelioration of the climate the reindeer also disappeared from Central Europe; and so the Palæolithic Age and its unique civilization came to a close in Europe.