526 PRIMITIVE INDUSTEY. 



ern period; by others the reindeer period; and M. de Mortillet made 

 finer distinctions to which lie gave the names of localities in which the 

 imiilements occur : Solntre, Moustier, and Madaleine. These were cav- 

 erns or rock shelters, and they all rei^resent the cavern period, with the 

 mammoth and the reindeer the most abundant, as the represent- 

 ative animals. The flint implements of these epochs were changed in 

 some degree, — the points become smaller, scrapers appeared ; bone, horn, 

 ivory was used; harpoons and fish-spears are found along the river 

 banks, and there have been already discovered about 400 specimens of 

 engraved animal bones, some of which are only ornaments while others 

 are decorated im]»lements, daggers, poignards, etc. It is coming to be 

 somewhat tixshionable in the United States to deny the authenticity of 

 these works of PahBolithic art; to denounce them as frauds, deelar- 

 ing them to be too fine to have been the work of a savage. It is not 

 my purpose on this occasion to enter into any defense thereof. Wlien 

 ever these charges shall take proper form and appear over responsible 

 signatures in the scientific publications of this country, and be trans- 

 mitted to France and England, their people, who are most interested 

 and best acquainted with these objects, will be abudnantly able to make 

 resx)onse thereto. I'ntil that time, they will as I do — ignore all insinua- 

 tions. 



It has been announced that new discoveries made by some of our 

 local arclneologists, whose names were mentioned, had about demol- 

 ished the Palaeolithic age in Europe as well as in America. I dissent 

 from this opinion, but it is not to be discussed lierc. Wlieu the prop- 

 osition shall have been ijublished, so that we may kno^^' exactly what is 

 charged and what is to be combatted, then it can be turned over to the 

 European prehistoric experts for them to detend their proposition, and 

 no one will doubt their abilit>' to do so. The seeker after knowledge 

 may properly ask, how it can be known that these different stages of 

 culture succeeded one another in tlie order named, and why they should 

 be classed with the Pahcolithic age, 1 can only upon this occasion 

 state the facts which api)eared satisfactory to the various investigators, 

 without attempting to argue or prove tlicm. In tlic alluvial period, the 

 chellean e[)Ocli, these iini)l('ments have been found in various ])arts of 

 Europe by the ten thousand, and always without the slightest trace of 

 the association with implements of polished stone. A single locality, 

 it is agreed, would be little or no value, but wlien it comes to be re- 

 peated by the score of times in localities widely s(^parated, belonging- 

 even to different countries, with never an exception, it has been ad- 

 mitted as satisfactory evidence that there was a Paheolithic age inde- 

 pendent from the Neolithic. Tliat it was earlier than the Neolithic 

 seems to be established. The position in which tlie implements Iuiac 

 been found, indicating their great age; the conditions under which 

 they have been found, deep in the undisturbed gravels of the river 

 valleys, and associated with the bones of extinct animals, wliich, in the 



