228 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



THE CAVE-SKELETON OF LAUGERIE-BASSE. 



M. De Mortillet, in an article upon the human skeleton 

 lately found in the Reindeer cave of Laugerie-Basse, in Dor- 

 dogne, refers to the accompaniment of certain shells, of the 

 genus Cyprcea, or cowry, belonging to two different species, 

 one of them found only in the Mediterranean, and the other 

 occurring on the Atlantic coast of France. This, in his opin- 

 ion, shows clearly that the Reindeer people must have had re- 

 lations with the Mediterranean to enable them to secure these 

 objects of adornment. He thinks, too, that it is incorrect to 

 call the cave-dwellers "troglodytes," inferring thereby that 

 they lived exclusively in such localities. He rather inclines 

 to believe that they only occupied the caves during the 

 summer seasons, being nomadic more or less, and spending 

 a considerable part of the year possibly in a different cli- 

 mate. 



He is also of the opinion that it is improper to use the term 

 "Reindeer people," since there have been discovered in certain 

 caves near Menton, on the borders of France and Italy, re- 

 mains evidently of precisely the same age as those of France, 

 but where no reindeer bones are to be met with, and showing 

 conclusively that in this region the reindeer did not occur. 

 He proposes, therefore, to replace the vague term of " the 

 Reindeer period" by the more rational one of " the epoch of 

 the Madelaine," a nomenclature that he has himself adopted 

 in the arrangement of the specimens in the Museum of Saint 

 Germain. M. De Mortillet also thinks, contrary to the asser- 

 tion of some writers, that the climate of the Mediterranean, 

 even in that period, was much the same as it is at present, 

 and very different from that of the Atlantic slope of France, 

 this difference being shown by the animal remains. Thus, on 

 the western side there occurred the reindeer, the saiga ante- 

 lope, the chamois, and the ibex, all of them animals belong- 

 ing to cold regions, and none of them met with on the south- 

 ern side. It is, therefore, not very astonishing if we find the 

 man of the Madelaine period going north in the summer to 

 hunt the reindeer, and returning in the autumn to the shores 

 of the Mediterranean to enjoy the milder climate. 8 J5, May 

 4,1872,1069. 



