During every storm, pieces of this
old ivory are washed loose and cast ashore; and the fishermen sell them.
It is thought that what is now the North Sea was, at the time the
elephants lived there, a swamp in which the animals went to drink and
bathe, and in which, at times, they became mired; and that this is why
so many of their bones are found along that coast.
Mammoths were very like big elephants, with tusks that turned up.
There are none on earth now. Neither are there any cave tigers. And
the two-horned rhinoceros has gone, and the great snowy owl.
Caverns and rock shelters in which men of the Stone Age lived have been
found in many places in our own country and in other lands. But caves
are few, even in limestone countries; and these early, stone-chipping
men lived the world over. So, in the open places and in forests among
wild beasts, they must have dug pits for safety or made rude huts of
earth or branches.
In caverns there have been more bones of horse and reindeer found than
of any other animals; and this shows that the early hunters did best in
killing these animals. There have been few bones of mammoths found;
but that is because those bones were mostly too heavy for the cave
people to carry away. It is likely that the flesh was eaten on the
spot where the animal was killed.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW EARLY MEN BELIEVED THAT ALL THINGS THAT MOVE ARE ALIVE
All early peoples made their songs by singing over and over a line or
two.
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