1869.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 87 



and arrangement, but nearly all agree in having notches or 

 grooves on their surface ; these, it is thought, may have served 

 for holding some poison. The club is simply the beam of an 

 antler, so arranged that the stump of one of the side antlers 

 served as a point with which a very severe blow might, no doubt, 

 be struck. The clubs are often very neatly made, and smoothed, 

 and notched at the small end to afford a firm grasp to the hand. 

 They bear a great analogy to the " Puck-a-maugun " of the 

 Indians of North West America. 



The drawings found on these implements of bone and antler, 

 usually represent the horse, reindeer, stag, and auroch ; these 

 animals seeming to have been the staple food of the cave-dwellers. 

 There appear also, though more rarely, drawings of fish. On 

 one piece of bone there is a rough representation of a human 

 figure, certainly not very flattering to the man of the period. 



A description of the opening of one of these bone caves, 

 (that of Cro-Magnon), is given in great detail. It was discovered 

 by the. removal of the accumulated talus from the foot of one of 

 the cliffs overlooking the Vezere, for the construction of a railway 

 embankment. It was a broad, but deep natural cavity, sheltered 

 by a projecting ledge of hard rock. This cave was systematically 

 worked out, and the history of its occupation by pre-historic man 

 read by the deposits of ashes, etc., contained in it. 



The first visit paid to this cave by the hunters of the reindeer, 

 is represented by a broad but shallow deposit of ashes and char- 

 coal, containing worked flints and broken and calcined bones, and 

 in its upper portion the stump of an elephant's tusk. After this 

 first visit, it seems to have been unoccupied for a long period of 

 time which is represented by a thick layer of debris, slowly accu- 

 mulated by the weathering of the roof and walls. Above this is 

 another thin layer of ashes, and then another layer of calcareous 

 debris. Lastly, there is a thick series of beds of ashes, which 

 seem to indicate that the cave was from this time used continu- 

 ously as a place of residence ; or at least so continuously as not 

 to allow of the intercalation of any roof debris. These beds of 

 ashes are full of pieces of charcoal, bones, pebbles of quartz, 

 worked flints, flint cores, and bone implements. The cave, in 

 fact appears to have been used as a place of residence till the 

 accumulated ashes and rubbish of the inhabitants, had rendered 

 it too small and narrow. It was then abandoned, and above the 

 last ash bed there is another thick deposit of roof debris. After 



