Page 225 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

12 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

depo its are found packed up with the remains of mammoth, wooly
rhinoceros bison, and horse, " and " the fossils are usually so
well preserved that on one occasion the actual carcass of a mam-
moth was exposed in so fresh a state that dogs ate the flesh
thereof.* These and other equally indisputable facts clearly
indicate the existence in Siberia of a mild and genial climate at a
time, which, from the freshness of the fossil remains, cannot be
supposed to be removed from the present by several thousands of
years. Again in North Africa and Syria we find in dry regions wide-
spread fluviatile accumulations which are believed to be indications
of rainy seasons, contemporaneous with tbe Glacial period of
Europe. t If thi contemporaneity can be e tablished, the high
estimate of time for the commencement of the post-Glacial period
in Europe will have to be given up, or at any rate much curtailed.
As regard the races which inhabited Europe in these early
ages, the evidence furnished by human remain or skulls shows
that they were the direct ancestors of the race now living in the
different parts of Europe. The current classification of the human
races into Aryan, Semetic, Mongolian, etc. is based upon the
linguistic principle· but it is evident that in dealing with ancient
races the archreologist and the geologist cannot adopt this principle
of division, ina u.much as their evidence consist of relic from which
no inference can be drawn as to the language used by the ancient
man. The shape and the size of the skull have, therefore, been
taken as the chief distinguishing marks to classify the different
races of prehistoric times. Thus if the extreme breadth of a skull
is three-fourths, or 75 per cent, of its length or lower, it is classed
as long-headed or dolicho-cephalic, while if the breadth is higher
than 83 per cent, of the length the skull is said to be brachy-
cephalic or broad-headed; the intermediate class being styled
orthocephalic, or sub-dolicho-cephalic, or sub-brachy-cephalic
according as it approaches one or the _other of these types. Now
from the examination of the different skulls found in the Neolithic
beds it has been ascertained that Europe in those early days was
inhabited by four different races, and that the existing European
types are directly descended from them. Of these four races two

"See GeiKie's Great Ice Age, rst Ed., p. 495; Dr. Croll's Climate
and Cosmology, p. 179.
t See Geikie's Fragments of Earth Lore, p. 252.