1869.] Archseologij. 87 



kingdom, which are described as tumuli, runic stones, circles, forti- 

 fied enclosures, inscrijjtious traced upon the rocks, dolmens, and 

 sepulchral chambers. The ancient fortified enclosures (borglem- 

 ningar), ordinarily situated on the summit of an eminence, are 

 often several miles inland, and are composed of one or more con-, 

 centric walls, constructed of great blocks of stone, some of which 

 are 10 cubic feet in dimension. Within the walls of the enclosure 

 are found traces of habitation ; and from time to time, deeply sunk 

 in the mud, at the base of the eminence upon which these hill- 

 forts are situated, the remains of ancient boats have been dis- 

 covered. Iron rings are also reported to have been found at the 

 bottom of the rock, to which they may have served to moor the 

 boats. There can be httle doubt that we have here evidence of 

 the gradual recession of the sea, and that these ancient enclosures, 

 now high and dry, were constructed upon points more or less 

 surrounded by water. 



Two more instalments of the ' Eeliquios Aquitanicaa ' have 

 been issued during the quarter. They are almost entirely occupied 

 by a description of the celebrated cave of Cro-Magnon, situated in 

 the valley of the Yezore, between the village of Les Eyzies and 

 the railway station of that place. The cave, which is 15 metres 

 above the river, and 73'25 metres above the seadevel, is formed by 

 a projecting bed of Cretaceous limestone, the debris of which forms 

 the lowest bed of the floor. This bed is succeeded by three layers 

 of ashes, separated from one another by thin beds of calcareous 

 debris. The uppermost of these is overlain by red earth with 

 bones, which underlies the thickest layer of ashes, bones, &c. The 

 ash-bed is surmounted by a yellowish earth with bones and flints, 

 and that by another bed of hearth- stufl", the rest of the cave being 

 filled up by calcareous debris and the rubbish of the talus. From 

 the yellowish earth at the back of the cave the remains of five 

 human skeletons were obtained, of which four have been recognized 

 as belonging to adults (three male and one female), and the other to 

 an immature infant. Associated with these remains were multi- 

 tudes of perforated marine shells, princijsally belonging to the common 

 Atlantic species LiUorina Uitorea, a worked amulet of ivory pierced 

 with two holes, carved antlers of reindeer, chipped flints, &c. The 

 fauna found associated with the sepulture in this case, and in the 

 layers of hearth-stuff, comprised fourteen or fifteen species of mam- 

 mals and one bird, and consisted of the remains of an enormous 

 bear, the mammoth, the great cave-lion, the reindeer, tlie sper- 

 mophile, &c., — the bird being possibly referable to the Crane genus. 

 The cave itself, as proved by the occurrence at all levels of flint 

 scrapers, seems to have served at different times as the habitation 

 of the same race of nomadic hunters, who, when the accumulated 

 refuse and debris had raised the floor of the cave to an inconvenient 



