8G0 



REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



M. Cartailliac^ sbows the working: of these mines. He says galleries 

 were carried in all directions irregularly. At the point where the fliut 

 was most plentiful and where they were to be engaged for the longest 

 time, they left certain ])ortions of the earth to serve as pillars of supjiort, 

 as is done in coal mines at the present day. The prehistoric miners 

 took great i)recaution against accidents; they filled all cavities and 

 interstices after they had taken out the Hint, to the end that there 



should be no caving, but 

 there were no traces of 

 shoring up with timbers. 



Notwithstanding all this 

 care, Boule and Cartailhac 

 found evidences of (;aving; 

 for example, the imple- 

 ments of deer horn were 

 found crushed by the fall- 

 ing of some portion of the 

 roof which had not been 

 properly supported. The 

 strokes of these picks of 

 the workmen were plainly 

 visible on the walls of the 

 galleries. Occasionally one 

 could findtheijointsstillin- 

 crusted in the rocks where 

 they had broken off. The 

 miners had kindled tires in 

 the galleries and used the 

 heat to break up the blocks 

 of flint to facilitate their 

 extraction and transport. 

 Some of them bore evidence 

 of the cords and strings 

 which had been used in carrying them. These prehistoric mines were 

 brought to view by the opening of alimestone quarry. The mine is shown 

 in fig. 54:, and one of the deer-horn picks is represented in fig. 55. 



Meuclon ( Oise), France. — Fig. 56 represents a similar mine from Meudon 

 reported by Cuvier, and figured by him and Brogniart in 1822.^ The 

 interest to him was the deer horn found therein; the interest to us is 

 that it was the work of man at a period to which Cuvier had refused 

 his belief upon a-priori theory. 



ChanqnonoUcs [OLse], France. — A prehistoric mine of flint was dis- 

 covered by Fouju and Bessin in October, 1890, and described in 1891.^ 



' La Fiance prebistoii(ine, p. 138, figs. 50-52. 



2 Idem, p. 139. 



3 L'Anthropologie, II, 1891, p. 445. 



Fig. 56. 



SECTION OF PREHISTOEIC FLINT MINE. 



Meudon (Oise), France. 



DLscovered in 1822 by Cuvier, wherein be finiiid a deer-liorn 



pick. 



I,:i I'"r:im-e jin-liislori.ine, p. KW, tig. 6:!. 



