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CHAPTEE X. 



CAVE MEN. 



IT would be quite impossible, within the limits of a single 

 chapter to describe all the caves in which human remains 

 have been found, in association with, and apparently belong- 

 ing to, the same period as those of the extinct mammalia. I 

 will only call attention to a few of those which have been 

 most thoroughly examined, and by the researches in which 

 the conclusions appear to be satisfactorily established. 



It is unnecessary to observe that a great number of caves 

 present evidence of having been inhabited during times long 

 subsequent to those which we are now considering; but for 

 the Neolithic Age, as well as for all later periods, we have, as 

 has been alreadv mentioned, other sources of information, and 



u 



more satisfactory evidence than any which can be derived 

 from the examination of caves. 



Some writers, indeed, have gone so far as to question alto- 

 gether the value of what may be called cave evidence. They 

 have suggested that the bones of extinct animals may have 

 lain in the caves for ages before the appearance of man ; that 

 relics of the human period may have been introduced subse- 

 quently ; and that remains belonging to very different periods 

 may have been mixed together. This was, for instance, the 

 conclusion arrived at by M. Desnoyers, even so recently as 

 the year 1845, in his article on Bone-caves.* Unless this 



* liecherches Geologiques et His- ments. Dictionnaire Univcrsel 

 toriques sur les Cavernes, particu- d'Histoire Naturelle. 

 lierement sur les cavernes a osse- 



