From Birkner, "Der Diluviale Mensch in Europa."

FIGURE 35. Bone Harpoons and Engravings on Bone of the Magdalenian

Epoch.

FIGURE 36. Aboriginal Man of the Mousterian Epoch. (Designed
by Dr. R. Forrer and Leo Schnug).

climatic changes and the advancing ice sheet. With the tempering of the climate the ice sheet melted back, In its wake, men and animals again pressed north. It required centuries for these changes, and the memory and tradition of a northern habitation must have perished from the minds of these primitive folk. In the intervening centuries the old cave dwellings were partially submerged by glacial drift so that when the peoples moved north again and the old caverns were rediscovered, the remains of former habitation were buried deep below the accumulated drift. In this way, by a succes

sion of migrations corresponding to climatic changes, remains of human habitations accumulated at different levels in the floor sands of these ancient caverns. We find at different levels implements, representing by the

FIGURE 37. Map showing the Location of Prehistoric Caves, all
of them ornamented by Paintings and Drawings.

grade of their workmanship, various cultural stages often corresponding to stratigraphical sequence.

In some sections of the continent there is a break in the continuity of cultural development from the upper paleolithic or rough stone age to the neolithic or polished stone age. Keane says that the elements of their respective cultures differ so widely as almost to suggest some violent dislocation or sudden cataclysm.43 The consequence is a prevailing impression that there was an abrupt transition from the rude culture of the rough stone men to the more developed culture of the polished stone men. Notably in Britain there seems to have been

43 Keane, op. cit., p. 110.

a complete gap between the river-drift culture and the neolithic culture. Future discoveries may show that the transition from the rough stone age was not as abrupt as was first supposed. At any rate, with the glacial evidence at hand, we are quite justified in the theory that out of the intensified struggle for existence consequent upon the overcrowding of peoples in the somewhat lim

FIGURE 38. Red Drawing of a Rhinoceros, from Font-de-Gaume.

ited territory south of the ice front, only the most durable cultural elements in connection with higher mental types of men survived. Isolation never develops the finer sensibilities and qualities which come with the mingling of peoples. Sparse and widely separated groups of men such as must have existed during the inter-glacial ages of the Paleolithic period, lacked the conditions for the development of high culture. When the cold increased and the ice once again pushed southward, these primitive men were exterminated or else slowly migrated to more temperate climates. Here the peoples were more in touch with one another and population was relatively dense. Under these conditions the struggle for food and space was more acute. The dull