At the present day the lion ranges over the whole of Africa, with the exception of Egypt and the Cape Colony, whence it has been driven out by the hand of man. In Asia, the maneless variety inhabits the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the districts bordering on the Persian Gulf; and in India, according to Mr. Blyth, the province of Kattywar in Guzerat. Although now only found in these hot regions, it is proved, by the concurrent testimony of Herodotus, Aristotle, Xenophon, Ælian, and Pausanias, to have inhabited the mountains of Thrace, and of Asia Minor, and it probably became extinct in Europe before the end of the first century after Christ.[259] We may therefore infer that it possessed a sufficient elasticity of constitution to endure a considerable degree of cold, although its present distribution implies that it is better fitted to thrive in a tropical than in a cold climate. The Caffir cat (Felis caffer of Desmarest) is an African species, which has been discovered by Mr. Ayshford Sanford and myself, in Somersetshire; it also occurs in the caves of Germany, France, and Gibraltar. The spotted hyæna now lives only in South Africa, while the striped species ranges through Africa and the warmer regions of Asia. It was extremely rare in Europe in the pleistocene age, and has not been identified in any deposit further north than Lunelviel, in southern France. The hippopotamus, now found only in middle and southern Africa, is proved by its fossil remains to have formerly dwelt in the region of the Lower Nile, as well as in Algeria. The serval and African elephant have been found in the Iberian peninsula, and the latter in Sicily.
The evidence afforded by the animals, as to the pleistocene climate of those portions of Europe which they inhabited, differs considerably in point of value, but on the whole indicates that it was temperate, or comparatively hot; for although the elasticity of constitution which we know to have been possessed by the lion, was probably shared by the spotted hyæna, it is very unlikely that so aquatic an animal as the hippopotamus could have ranged from southern Europe, as far north as Yorkshire, under any other than temperate conditions. It could not have endured a winter sufficiently severe to cover the rivers with a thick coating of ice, without having its present habits profoundly modified; and such an alteration of habits would certainly leave its mark, in other modifications in the fossil skeleton than those minute differences which have been observed, when it is compared with that of the living Hippopotamus amphibius. The porcupine of southern Europe has been found as far north as the caves of Belgium (Schmerling).
The Northern Group.
The northern group consists of those animals which are now only to be met with in the colder regions of the northern hemisphere, either in low latitudes or at great altitudes.
Marmot.
Pouched Marmot.
Lemming.
Alpine Hare.
Tailless Hare.
Glutton.
Arctic Fox.
Musk-sheep.
Reindeer.
Ibex.
Chamois.
To this list the palæolithic man of the caves must be added, since he is probably related by blood to the Eskimos, and appeared in Europe simultaneously with the arctic group of animals.
The testimony of these animals as to climate is directly opposed to that of the preceding group, since they now only flourish in the arctic regions, or in mountainous districts in which the climate is severe. The marmot, in the pleistocene age, lived in Belgium, and descended from the Alpine heights as far as the shores of the Mediterranean, where it has been met with in the caverns near Nice. The pouched marmot, Spermophilus citillus of the Don and Volga, penetrated as far to the west as Somersetshire. The Alpine hare, now found only in the colder climates of northern Europe, Asia, and America (with the solitary exception of Ireland), ranged as far down the valley of the Rhine as Schussenreid, in Suabia. The two carnivores now dwelling in the colder regions of the north, the glutton or wolverine, and the arctic fox, have been discovered, the one as far south as France, the other as far as Schussenreid, and both probably occupied the whole of Germany, and of northern Russia, in the pleistocene age.
The musk-sheep,[260] the most arctic in its habit of all the herbivores, is, at the present time, restricted to the high latitudes of North America, where it thrives in the desolate, treeless, barren grounds, not even being driven from its haunts by the extreme severity of the winter. It has been traced, by its fossil remains, from its present abode, across Behring’s Straits, and through the vast Siberian steppes, into Russia in Europe, Germany, Britain, and as far south and west as the barrier offered by the Pyrenees. Throughout this large area its remains occur in association with the reindeer, and both these animals, as I have remarked above, were hunted by the palæolithic dwellers in the caves of Aquitaine, just as they are now hunted by the Eskimos on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
If the present habits of these animals be any index to their mode of life in the pleistocene age, their presence in the area north of the Alps and Pyrenees implies that the climate in France, Germany, and Britain was severe, or analogous to that which they now enjoy on the tops of lofty mountains, or in the northern Asiatic steppes, or the high northern latitudes of America. But this conclusion is diametrically opposed to that which is based on the evidence of the southern group of animals.[261] And the remains of the two groups of animals are so associated together in the caves, and river-deposits of Europe, north of the Pyrenees, that it is impossible to deny the fact that it was the common feeding-ground of both during the same era.[262]