120 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. II. 



Lastly let us finish our protest against the appellation given to these 

 men of Troglodytes or cave-dwellers. In a few parts of Europe caves 

 are numerous. In those localities they may have been used as dwell- 

 ings, for caves can be made very comfortable habitations. They are so 

 equal in temperature, have such lovely views before them, are so secure 

 from fire, flood and cyclone, give such facilities for cleanliness and 

 drainage, that people hold to them as eligible dwellings to this day. We 

 could now multiply cave dwellings almost at will, for we have tools of 

 iron, but the men of the stone ages could not, they had to be content 

 with natural caves, and there never were enough to have served more 

 than the merest fraction of the population. You cannot house the 

 increasing numbers of our forefathers unless you allow them to live 

 under coverings of bark or of skins, probably moveable like those of the 

 Khirghiz, the Esquimaux, the Indians, the South Africans. A spot 

 near a cave was doubtless thought a good place to encamp, the mere 

 shelter of an overhanging ledge would mean comfort, and happy must 

 have been the family in Quaternary times who could establish a right 

 of possession, either for a single season or for several. For a residence 

 of a few weeks at a tirrie, such caves were doubtless convenient ; so the}' 

 would be now for a party of pot-hunters. But if anybody says our 

 ancestors lived continuously and exclusively in caves both dark and wet, 

 on floors reeking with the foulest of smells, which would revolt his senses 

 and destroy his body — let us hesitate to believe him. Was there no 

 rheumatism or phthisis to be feared — no typhoid or malarial fever to be 

 avoided ? Possibly the caves may have been used as store houses for a 

 settlement or a group of families encamped near by. During a period of 

 rain or snow or tempest, work could be carried on there, they would be 

 as stores where fuel could be kept dry, and, in summer, carcasses of 

 animals would keep, better than outside. Perhaps the fires were for 

 smoking and so preserving some kinds of meat. During continuous 

 rains the cave might be the temporary kitchen for several families or the 

 whole. This view raises man in all prehistoric epochs, of which we have 

 relics, to a higher plane than that usually assigned to him — so much 

 higher, indeed, as to lead to the belief that in tracing with reasonable 

 accuracy the habits of these ancient tribes, we can find guidance in the 

 local customs of several isolated European districts in this very year of 

 grace — survivals probably from the remotest epochs. 



