AND THE REINDEER IN MIDDLE EUROPE. 359 



to tlie reindeer period, it is conclusively shown tliat some of the mammoth species 

 sm'vived to that time. 



It is rather remarkable that as yet only a single delineation has been found 

 which can be interpreted as relating to the bear, being the head of that animal, 

 while the rest of the carnivora are wholly unrepresented. That representations 

 of the unavoidable struggles of man with these animals should not have been 

 left behind is scarcely to be believed, especially when their teeth, pierced with 

 holes and destined for suspension as trophies, bear unequivocal testimony to such 

 encounters. Birds and reptiles have not hitherto been found represented. Fish, 

 on the other hand, are very frequent, and can, for the most part, be recognized as 

 belonging to the car]) family, which still frequents the fresh waters of the region. 

 We meet with no trace of n)arino animals ; the men who lived in Dordogne at the 

 era of the reindeer seem to have hnown nothing of the sea and its inhabitants. 



These objects of art have been found only in the three grottos of Les Eyzies, 

 Laiigcrie-Basse, and La ]\Iadelaine, in the department of Dordogne. The first 

 of these is high and wide enough to enable the light to penetrate throughout, 

 being 12 metres deep, 16 broad, and 6 metres high ; it a})})ears to have been 

 nsed in the middle ages as a stable for horses. When Lartet and Christy began 

 their explorations, the grotto had been considerably enlarged and deepened by 

 earlier occupants, though the explorers found at the bottom a compact floor, from 

 which projected masses of blackish stalagmite, flint instruments, stones, and 

 pieces of bone ; this bone-breccia lay immediately on the rock floor of the cave, 

 and showed a thickness of one to three decimetres. Large pieces were broken 

 loose, wliich were sent partly to different musemns, but in greater quantity to 

 Paris, with a view to more exact examination. The station of Laugerie-Basse is 

 partly in the hollow of a rock, whose face is 100 feet high, while a part of the 

 formation, on which appeared traces of an ancient fire-place, extended outwardly 

 in front of the cavern. Within, the breccia was full three metres in depth. The 

 neighboring station of the Madelaine lies at the foot of the rock, and forms a 

 decayed heap 15 metres in length, 7 in breadth, and 3 in depth, in which 

 some human bones were found, but unfortunatel}^ not complete enough to indi- 

 cate the race of men from whom the}^ proceeded. Some fragments of blood- 

 stone and a coarse stick or pencil of ochre leave it to be inferred that in that dis- 

 tant age colored di'awings were sometimes executed. 



Thus we see how civilization was undergoing a slow but constant develop- 

 ment among the oldest inhabitants of middle Europe. The facts which the 

 excavations of Chaleux have disclosed, in connection with those discttvered in 

 the grottos of Furfooz, furnish a picture of tlie first age of mankind in B;'lgium. 

 These old populations, with all their usages, reappear before us, after having 

 been many thousand ^^ears forgotten, reminding us of the fabulous bird which 

 sprang with renewed life from its ashes. So the primeval age of mankind is 

 rebuilt from its own ruins. 



We see them in then* dark, underground retreats suiTounding the primitive 

 hearth, shaping with some skill and greater patience their weapons from flint- 

 stone and their utensils from reindeer's horn, in the midst of the unwholesome 

 exhalations of animal remains, which in their carelessness they have heaped 

 around them. The skins of captured beasts are stript of hair, and from these 

 clothing is prepared by means of an awl of silex and a needle of bone. We see 

 them armed with arrows and lances, whose points of flint have been sharpened 

 for deadly execution, pursuing the beasts of the waste. We visit them in their 

 fastnesses, where a horse, a bear, a reindeer, forms the product of a successful 

 cha.se, and the repulsive flesh of rats their resource against contingent I'amine. 

 They conduct a commerce with the populations of France, and bring thence 

 molluscous shells and jet, with which they delight to adorn themselves, and silex, 

 which is so indispensable for arms and implements. IIer« is a store of fluor- 



