§8 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Marcll 



this last deposit had increased to a considerable thickness, and 

 the cave was just high enough to crawl into, it was used as a 

 place of sepulture. At the very back of the cave and partly 

 buried in calcareous debris, were found bones referable to five 

 human skeletons. Among these, the most perfect skulls were 

 those of an old man and of a woman. The woman's skull had 

 been pierced by some pointed instrument (in shape answering 

 very well to that of one of the flint lance heads) which had been 

 the cause of her death. Death did not, however, ensue imme- 

 diately, as the edges of the cut were partly healed up ; indeed, it 

 is the opinion of physicians to whom it has been referred that 

 she survived several weeks. 



M. Louis Lartet writes, at p. 70, " Amidst the human 

 remains lay a multitude of marine shells (about 300) each 

 pierced with a hole, and nearly all belonging to the species 

 Littorina littorea, so common on our Atlantic coasts. Some 

 other species, such as Purpura lapillus, Turritella communis, &c., 

 occur, but in small numbers. These also are perforated, and, like 

 the others, have been used for necklaces, bracelets, or other orna- 

 mental attire. Not far from the skeletons I found a pendant or 

 aumlet of ivory, oval, flat, and pierced with two holes. 

 M. Laganne had already a smaller specimen ; and M. Ch. 

 Grenier, schoolmaster at Des Eyzies, has kindly given me 

 another, quite similar, which he had received from one of his 

 pupils. There were also found near the skeletons several perfo- 

 rated teeth, a large block of gneiss ; also worked antlers of rein- 

 deer, and chipped flints of the same types as these found in the 

 hearth layers underneath." The bones Ibund in this cave com- 

 prised, besides the commoner kinds as those of the reindeer, 

 horse, &c., those of an enormous bear, of the mammoth, of the 

 great Cave-Lion, &c. Another peculiarity of this cave is the 

 absence of any engraving or carving. " Hence, we may refer 

 this station of Cro-Magnon to the age immediately preceding that 

 artistic period which saw in this country the first attempts of the 

 engraver and the sculptor " 



Dr. Pruner Bey gives a very full and elaborate description of 

 the skulls and other anatomical details found in the cave of 

 Cro-Magnon, he considers the inhabitants of this cave, " as 

 decidedly affiliated to the other Mongoloids of the age of the 

 Reindeer," and in their cranial character to approximate most 

 nearly to the Esthonians. He also writes, '* Lastly, as to the data 



