THE REINDEER-PERIOD. 7 



been discovered in the cave-deposits, excepting small boulders with a shallow 

 cup-shaped cavity ground in on one side, which were found at several stations. 

 They may have served as paint-mortars or for bruising vegetable substances. 

 The accumulations in the caves contain " innumerable chips and countless thou- 

 sands of blades of flint, varying in size from lance-heads, long enough and stout 

 enough to have been used against the largest animals, down to lancets not larger 

 than the blade of a pen-knife, and piercing-instruments of the size of the smallest 

 bodkin."* Quite numerous are the so-called nuclei, or cores, that is, blocks of 

 flint from which flakes have been detached, to be afterward prepared for detinite 

 uses, such as cutting, sawing, etc. Well-made spear-heads of flint have been 

 found, and also objects resembling arrow-heads in size and shape. Flint scrapers, 

 like those still used by the Eskimos for cleaning hides, have occurred in great 

 number at different stations, as, for instance, at Cro-Magnon. The flint imple- 

 ments of Le Moustier somewhat approach the drift-types, and are generally of a 

 ruder character than the chipped articles found at the other stations, which fact, 

 in connection with various other circumstances, renders it almost certain that this 

 cave was inhabited by man at a much earlier epoch than any other of the group 

 under notice. The contents of the eaves, I may state in this place, exhibit no 

 uniformity in the j^roducts of human industry, having been inhabited by the 

 hunters for a very long period, during which they imjjroved perceptibly in the 

 mechanical arts. I must refrain, however, from entering upon a detailed descrip- 

 tion of each cave or shelter, as it appears sufficient for my purpose to present a 

 general view of troglodytic life in the valley of the Vezere. 



The implements of horn and bone, which evince still more skill and patient 

 labor than the flint tools just briefly noticed, were likewise manufactured in the 

 caves, many unfinished articles of this class having been discovered in the rub- 

 bish. Among such relics I will mention chisels, awls, needles with diminutive 

 holes, round and tapering lance-heads (with beveled lower ends for insertion into 

 wooden shafts), harpoon-shaped darts, large and small,f spoon-like instruments 

 (sujiposed to have served for extracting marrow from bones), whistles, and 

 various other objects, the use of which is not always quite evident. These tools 

 and weapons are mostly cut from reindeer-horn, a material of great hardness, 

 and therefore well fitted foj* the purposes to which it was apj^lied. Generally 

 speaking, articles of reindeer-antler are most abundant in the caves supposed to 

 have been the later retreats of the ancient hunters of the Vezere Valley. 



There ai'e indications that the cave-dwellers were not insensible to the charms 

 of personal decoration. They probably painted themselves, in the fashion of still 

 existing savage tribes, with red color, which they scraped off^ from pieces of soft 



* Lartet and Christy: KeliquioB Aquitanicai; I, p. 21. 

 f To be considered hereafter. 



