182 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTK. [VoL. 11. 



every door is accessible. I do not see that these dvvelHngs are inferior to 

 those of people of similar class in any country, even ours. On the 

 Gironde, they all face south-west, and where the Dordogne comes in 

 from the east the cliff is cut by that stream and the cave-dwellers' 

 habitations extend up the north bank, thus looking south. I suppose 

 the same formation runs up to near Tours, for in a paper given to the 

 Globe by our Dr. E. A Meredith, in 1888, he notes the existence of cave- 

 dwellers in that locality. Dating his letter from Vernou, he says he saw 



" huge black openings in the horizontal ridge of white rock, high up in the side of 

 the valley fronting us. What are they ? Well, these are the mouths of some of the 

 famous caves for which Vernou and the neighbouring region is celebrated. Caves 

 tenanted by human beings. * * * But let it not be supposed for a moment 

 that these troglodytes are necessarily on that account objects of commiseration ; on 

 the contrary, after inquiry and personal examination of several of the cave-dwellings, 

 I am quite satisfied that the subterraneous inhabitants of Touraine, if I may so 

 describe them, may well be envied by the peasantry of many other countries. * 

 * * They are warm in winter and cool in summer * * * considered 

 remarkably healthy * "* in no part of Touraine are there so many instances 



of longevity as among the tenants of the caverns. * * * Operations 



connected with the pressing of the grapes and the making of the wine are carried on 

 in the caves * * which, from the evenness of their temperature, make most 

 admirable wine cellars. * * * -phe owner of one of the caves which I 

 visited, a three storeyed dwelling, told me very naively that during the late Franco- 

 Prussian war, when the German army occupied the country for several weeks, he hid 

 himself and his belongings for eight or ten days in the back part of the cave, which 

 extended more than 1 50 feet into the rock, having carefully stopped up the cave some 

 twenty feet from its entrance. * * * Like commonplace habitations they 

 are endless in variety. * * Some are nothing but simple openings into the 



rocky limestones, without door or window. Others again have good doors and 

 windows set into the solid masonry built on to the rock, with chimneys protruding 

 through the. sides of the cliffs like an incrustation or growth upon the rock, while 

 elsewhere the masonry forms a large annex to the rock behind it, and finally the 

 dwelling house proper is built quite separate from the rock and the caves are used 

 simply as outbuildings or cellars for the inhabitants. * * * The deepest 

 of these caves, which I myself examined, was probably 1 50 or 200 yards in length, 

 opening out considerably as we advanced inside the rock, but this depth is greatly 

 exceeded in some cases. Indeed I was told that there were caves whose extent had 

 never been ascertained." 



After many other interesting paragraphs, Mr. Meredith says : — 



" As a rule these cave habitations are occupied solely by the peasantry, but to this 

 rule there are occasional exceptions. One of the caves not far from my hostess' house 

 was occupied by a lady of some means, who had furnished her cavern very well and 

 made herself very comfortable in her rocky lodgings. In the preceding winter, 

 however, the weather had been unusually severe, and she had found her efforts to 

 raise the temperature of the cave by fire almost altogether useless, the constant fires 

 producing but very inappreciable results. Of the origin of these caves we have said 



