ETHNOLOGY. • 345 



also tlie same auimals — the great bear, Fells spelcea, the wolf, Cmiis 

 vulpes. a sperinophile, two Lepus, the Elephas primigenmH, the huh^ the 

 horse very abundant, the reindeer, the nrus, some teeth of the com- 

 mon deer, and lastly a species of goose. Without a doubt the vestiges 

 of successive habitation in the hollow of Cromagnon are traces of the 

 same race of hunters. When the accumulation of culinary debris had 

 considerably reduced the height of the little cave it became the final 

 abode of a few of these ancient people. Five skeletons, a woman, a 

 child, an old man, and two young men were found in it, and, with them, 

 nearly three hundred marine shells, esj)ecially the LittoHna Uttorea, 

 some amulets of ivory-pierced teeth, instruments of reindeer horn, &c. 



From the absence of barbed arrows and of engraving on stone, and 

 from the predominance of the horse over the reindeer, Cromagnon dates 

 before the last period of the caves, and is very nearly contemporary 

 with that of Upper Laugerie, which was visited immediately afterward 

 by the association. Each member had been supplied by M. Emile Car- 

 tailhac with a map of the valley of the V6zere, on the side of which were 

 represented the excavations of Cromagnon and Lower Laugerie. 



In passing to Tayac the association stopped for a few moments to 

 examine an interesting Roman church ; a short distance further on thej' 

 crossed the Vezere in a ferry-boat, and were charmed with the jiictur- 

 esque aspect of the valley. The right branch of the river is not wide, 

 and the steep declivities which rise almost vertically are less than 50 

 meters from the river. Above the hamlet of Upper Laugerie we ob- 

 served a talus with a line of enormous blocks of stone upon it, and were 

 told that it was a cornice of rock which had fallen during the last cen- 

 tury, destroying human habitations, sheep, and cows in its descent. The 

 present occupants of the soil, wuth no fear of a similar accident, have 

 rebuilt their miserable cabins upon some of the fallen rocks. It is here 

 that MM. de Vibraye and Franchet collected, sometimes below the level 

 of the waters of the Vezere, large quantities of those flint instruments 

 with oval ends and both sides shaped, which have become characteristic 

 of an intermediate period between the age of the locality of the Moustier 

 which succeeded thnt of Saint Acheul, and the age of Eyzies, of the 

 Madelaine, &c. 



Above this important stratum lie the deposits of the last i^eriod of 

 the time of the reindeer, which witnessed the birth of industry and the 

 arts, of drawing and of sculpture. These commence at Upper Laugerie, 

 and continue for several hundred yards toward Lower Laugerie, where 

 they form a talus of 12 meters in thickness. Protected from the damp by 

 the overhanging rocks, the bones are admirably preserved, and the 

 excavations made have been attended with astonishing results. MM. 

 Ed. Lartet and Christy, and the Marquis of Vibraye commenced the work 

 which was continued for six years by M. Elie Massenat, (de Brives.) 



Numerous relics of every period have been collected at the surface of 

 the talus, but especially of the age of bronze and of polished stone. 



