some sheltering cliff, all traces of the 
spot and its relics would be lost. Hence, 
we may properly take for granted that 
hundreds of archeological stations will 
remain undiscovered, in 
of which our notion of the actual strength 
consequence 
of the population at any given place 
during these early millenniums of human 
existence must continue imperfect, if 
not inadequate. 
As need hardly be stated the presence 
of natural habitations depends ordinarily 
on a high relief or a more or less moun- 
tainous topography. Caves are most 
abundant in voleanic regions as in the 
western United States or in limestone 
areas such as Kentucky and adjacent 
commonwealths. Shelters are notable 
features of steep-walled valleys or box- 
cafions and our own cliff-dweller region 
affords the best example of them and 
their utilization. In Europe the most 
famous cave groups are located in the 
lower French Pyrenees and their Canta- 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
brian extension in northern Spain, while 
the equally famous shelter region in- 
cludes short sections of the Vézére and 
Beune Valleys at Les Eyzies, in the 
French department of Dordogne. Both 
regions are wonderfully picturesque and 
impressive and barring some alterations 
in the flora they have not changed much 
in general appearance since the arrival 
of paleolithic man. These caves and 
shelters are all in limestone formations 
and are the results chiefly of mechanical 
erosion. Some of the caves, especially 
those of the lower altitudes, are still in 
process of making, while others, well up 
on the mountain sides, are very ancient — 
in fact, were in their old age when man 
first entered them. 
Roughly speaking, the shelters proper, 
that is the overhanging cliffs and the 
wide open grottos, were the homes of 
palzolithic man and therefore naturally 
furnish us with important data concern- 
ing his physical make-up, his practical 
4 a > 
\ . 
= 
" *, 
heal 
The Vézére River, its floodplain and cliff wall as seen from the entrance to the Gorge d’Enfer, 
above Les Eyzies, France. 
The station of La Micoque is on the extreme right, Laugerie Haute at 
the foot of the distant cliff and Laugerie Basse nearer by off the first bend in the stream 
