GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, AND STATISTICS. 315 



more radical and active, never fails to espy a new comer for pos- 

 sible encroachment, and, unless morally taught to restrain him- 

 self, never loses sight of an opportunity where he can practise 

 upon the observed weakness of his protectors. 



The interest of the cat's civilization is, then, the curiously pil- 

 lowy inertness of her higher and engrafted nature. It is like her 

 fur and velvet paws in relation to the carnivorous cravings and 

 sharp claws which these conceal, like the purr with which she 

 announces her satisfaction in relation to the mew with which she 

 proclaims her wants. The higher element in her is a mere recep- 

 tivity for higher companionship, an unconscious, inarticulate 

 pleasure in the presence and protection of a higher creature, 

 which, so far from educating her, only blunts the edge of her car- 

 nivorous acuteness. Civilization with her is not the eliciting of 

 new ideas, but a certain sedative administered to old ones by the 

 partial pacification of her savage characteristics, and the growth 

 of a new and higher class of composing associations. It is 

 enough, however, if the cat teaches us, as she certainly does, that 

 civilization is by no means a process arising in the growth of 

 knowledge and the accumulation of intellectual laws, that it 

 may be subserved up to a certain point, at least, by influences 

 which operate chiefly as smothering and blunting the raw mate- 

 rial of the original passions, rather than as educating and enlight- 

 ening the nature which owns them. The Spectator. 



THE REINDEER PERIOD. 



The following are some of Mr. Christy's observations on the 

 Reindeer Period, as given in the "Reliquiae Aquitanicee," recently 

 published by him and M. Lartet : 



"It would be easy to cite many circumstances illustrative of 

 the resemblance between the condition and habits of the modern 

 Esquimaux and the cave-dwellers of France at the Reindeer pe- 

 riod. But now conies the question: 'When was the Reindeer 

 period in southern France, and what is its antiquity ? ' 



" It is far easier to indicate its place in the series of observed 

 facts in relation to ancient man, than to assign to it any definite 

 antiquity of years. Geologically, a wide gulf separates it from 

 the drift-period, though perhaps wider in the geological than in 

 the paleontological aspect ; but, on the other hand, it will seem, 

 both from the paleontological and archasological bearings, to be of 

 higher antiquity than the Kjb'kkenmb'ddings of Denmark and the 

 lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland, and very certainly than the 

 whole group of so-called Celtic and Cromlech remains. Compar- 

 ing its fauna with that of these various periods, the Reindeer pe- 

 riod may be placed thus : 



"In the drift (valley-gravels) the mammoth, rhinoceros, horse, 

 and ox are the predominant animals, and the reindeer appears but 

 sparingly. In the Dordogne caves the reindeer predominates, as- 

 sociated largely with the horse and aurochs, and exceptionally with 

 some remains of mammoth, hyena, etc. ; but all traces of suclrdo- 

 mesticated animals as the sheep, the goat, and the dog are wanting. 



