riilMlTiVK IJS'DUSTUY. 527 



opiiiioji of till' iiiVL'stigatiug' geologists, proves rliat they belonged to 

 a prior geologic jjeriod, tlie (j>uateriiary, or Post-])liocene. 



The progressi\e steps of eulture and invention mentioned as belong, 

 ing to the cavern period seem to have been satisfactorily established 

 by investigation nmde in the caverns themselves, where in nnmerons 

 instances the gradnal filling np of the cavern has preserved the earlier 

 occupation at the bottom, while the subsequent occupations have taken 

 their respective places, each one above the other in their orders of 

 time. For exami)le, at Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, England, the cav- 

 erns investigated with all possible care during a period of twelve or 

 thirteen years, in which as nuiny thousand dollars were expended, 

 under the direction of a committee api)ointed by the British Associa- 

 tion, where the strata of these early occupations were covered by layers 

 of stalagmite spread over what was then the entire surface, sej)aratiug 

 and sealing it hermetically from sul)sequent occupation. Under it, in 

 various parts of the cavern, were found these same chipped flint imple- 

 ments, Avhicli have been denominated chellean, and beyond the chips 

 and flakes possibly the hammers incident necessary for their fabrication. 

 No other trace of human industry was found. In the Grotte de Placard, 

 in southwestern France, the same super-position was found, Mhich gave 

 satisfactory evidence of this succession of human occupation and of the 

 accomi)anying changes and iiiii)rovements of human culture. The strata 

 containing Xeolithic and Paheolithic objects are distinctly marked and 

 are vseparated by a stratum entirely sterile so far as concerns archaeology, 

 made up chiefly of broken stones fiom the roof of tlie cavern, several 

 inches in thickness. The ca>'ern of Paugeric Haute gives the same 

 evidence and is even more positive, for the sterile stratum is about 4 feet 

 3 inches in thickness. In the (Irotte de la \'ache the stalagmitic stratum 

 between the Paheolithic and Xeolithic indnstries is about IS inches 

 thick. The latest indications we have, occnrred in the summer of 1SJ>2, 

 when M. Houle was called from Paris to visit the {»re-]iistoric station 

 cavern of Schweizcu'sbild, near Scliafliiausen, in tlie immediate neighbor- 

 hood of th<' cavern of Tliayingen, Tliiiringen, wliicli gave the celebrated 

 <lrawing. engraxcd (m bone, of the reindeer biowsing. M. Bcmle has 

 Jnst pul>lisiied a rei)ort of his investigations in the JS^ouvelks Arc/iivcs 

 tics Missioihs, tome 111, and lie shows (pi. 3), the drawing which he has 

 made of tin- debris left on tlie side of 1;he cavern showing the superposed 

 and conse((nenTly successive occupations and coiTesi»onding iin[)rove- 

 inents in linnian invention and hnnnin cnltnre. 



The differences between the Paheolitliic and tiie Neolithic ages hi 

 Knrope, the only place where it has ])een studied, are marked by dif- 

 ferences in climate. geogra|)iiy, fauna, doinesticity of animals, socioh)gy 

 and other things beside industry. I'rof. I»oyd Dawkins, '• ICarly IMaii 

 in Ilritain," ]>age265, says : 



''The great changes in the fauna and geography of dreat r.ritain, 

 at the cl(>se of the Pleistocene age. rendered it very improbable that 



