1864. ] 
Périgueux with the appearance of 
‘a bed of gravel intermixed with 
flint, which reminds him of the 
diluvium of St. Acheul, near Amiens; 
and after passing further southward, 
and having reached the valleys of the 
Beune and of the Vezére, especially 
towards the station of Eyzies, he 
must notice, even in the hasty rail- 
way journey, the excavations into 
which the steep rocks, which border 
on the course of the river, are 
hollowed out. This part of the 
centre of France had been until 
lately very imperfectly explored, but 
MM. Lartet and Christy, both well 
known as geologists, have jointly 
Notes and Correspondence. 
579 
examined the grottos of Périgord. 
They have collected some objects 
of extremely high scientific value, 
which certainly throw a very clear 
light upon the history of primitive 
man.* Amongst a mass of flints 
formed into hatchets, knife-blades, 
arrow-heads, of bones worked into 
the shape of needles, of barbed 
arrows, of harpoons, of amulets or 
ornaments, and of daggers; and 
evidencing the existence, among a 
primitive people as yet ignorant of 
the use of metals, of a certain kind 
of industry, and even of art; these 
gentlemen have been so fortunate 
as to discover some daggers,t the 
1die, aly 
handles of which, although roughly 
carved and sculptured (Figs. 1 and 
2), allow us to recognize without 
the possibility of a doubt that the 
engraver has wished to represent 
the reindeer then living before his 
eyes. Thus not only the material 
of which the weapon is formed, but 
also the designs which ornament it, 
bear witness to the presence of this 
animal in the middle of France in 
pre-historic times. 
A piece of carving upon an arrow, 
unfortunately mutilated in its most 
important part, the head, gives the 
impression that the Aurochs (bos 
urus) was also existing in this same 
country. For the height of the 
line of the back above the shoulders 
* The observations of these gentlemen, 
at first presented to the Academy of 
Sciences (part 58) in 1864, have been 
published in the ‘Reyue Archéologique,’ 
1864. 
+ These drawings are copied from the 
“Memoir of MM. Lartet and Christy,” 
in the ‘ Revue Archeéologique.’ 
