Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/173

Rh caves; but, considering that they live in these situations and hide in crevices and holes, it is possible that the bones of recent individuals may get mingled with those of fossil animals. The same may be said of the and  at the same time there is every probability that these animals were contemporary in many cases with the larger quadrupeds, with whose remains their bones have been found mingled.

The last of the mammals to arrive on the British Islands after the glacial period may or may not have been It is not likely, however, that he would have pushed northwards in a land destitute of the animal food on which he must have depended for his existence; it is probable therefore that the large herbivorous quadrupeds at all events preceded him. It is clear, moreover, that he lived on the same area with them, as proven by the discovery of his flint implements in conjunction with their remains in caves and peat-bogs. In Brixham Cavern flint instruments of the chase, comprising arrow and spear heads, axes and knives of stone, have been found mingled with the broken bones and teeth of the Bear, Lion, Great Horned Deer, Reindeer, Red Deer, Roebuck, Wild Horse, Elephant and Rhinoceros. In Kent's Cavern, at Torquay, where the Fauna were more numerous, the same conditions have been observed. In the Gower Caves, Wokey Hole, and many other situations, the proofs of man's contemporaneous existence with these extinct animals are placed beyond a doubt. It is clear, moreover, that in some instances he contributed towards, and in others succeeded in, exterminating many of the quadrupeds just mentioned; but, so far as the evidence yet extends, it is not certain that he dwelt on British soil before the glacial period.

Although stone implements, more or less rude in construction, have been discovered in Ireland and Scotland, there are no recorded instances of their having been found associated with the bones of any extinct quadrupeds; at the same time there can be little doubt that the stone arrow and spear points, wherever found, are indications of the venatorial habits of the people who fabricated them. The evidence perhaps is more circumstantial than direct; but, taking into consideration the small number of flint tools found in Ireland, with the abundance of the remains of its giant deer, it is probable that, if man existed on the island at a time when it was overrun by herds of this animal, he would have destroyed them,