TEE CAVE-DWELLERS OF FRANCE, 



699 



THE TROGLODYTES, OR CAVE-DWELLERS OF 



FRANCE. 1 



By PAUL BROCA. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, BY J. FITZGERALD, A. M. 



1. Their Manner of Life. 



IN the southwest of France, at no great distance from the river 

 Vezere, are situated the caves which were inhabited by a race of 

 Troglodytes toward the close of the Quaternary geological period. 

 The openings of these caves faced all points of the compass, except 

 the north. They were inhabited throughout the entire year, as is 

 shown by the remnants still found there of young reindeer, in every 

 stage of development. From the teeth, bones, and budding horns of 

 these animals, we can determine their age, and the season of the year 

 when they were killed; and the evidence of this kind furnished us by 

 the contents of the caves shows that the Troglodytes had a fixed 

 abode; or, in other words, that they were not nomadic in their 

 habits. 



Fig. 1. 



Pestle and Mobtab. 



When the inhabitants of the caves went fishing or hunting, they 

 closed up the door-ways to exclude beasts of prey. Only one bone 

 has been fonnd, and that at La Madelaine, which bears any tokens 

 of having been gnawed by a wild beast. It shows the marks of a 

 hyena's teeth, the animal having in some way gained admittance to 

 the cave. Hyenas were scarce in the time of our Troglodytes, but wolves 

 and foxes abounded ;^ and we should find the marks of their teeth upon 

 the bones strewed about in the caves, were it not that the inhabitants 



1 This article is a part of the elaborate address before the French Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, by M. Paul Broca, one of the most eminent anthropologists 

 of Europe. 



