Many authorities support this proposition that man--palæolithic man, man of the mammoth and the mastodon--existed in the caves of Europe before the Drift.
"After having occupied the English caves for untold ages, palæolithic man disappeared for ever, and with him vanished many animals now either locally or wholly extinct."[1]
Above the remains of man in these caves comes a deposit of stalagmite, twelve feet in thickness, indicating a vast period of time during which it was being formed, and during this time man was absent.[2]
Above this stalagmite comes another deposit of cave-earth:
"The deposits immediately overlying the stalagmite and cave-earth contain an almost totally different assemblage
[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 411.
2. Ibid., p. 411.]
{p. 127}
of animal remains, along with relics of the neolithic, bronze, iron, and historic periods.
"There is no passage, but, on the contrary, a sharp and abrupt break between these later deposits and the underlying palæolithic accumulations."[1]