2i6 A SKETCH OF THE 



for the fellow, who appeared equally surprised as we were, jumped 

 up, and retreating to the further end of the cavern, hastily put on 

 his clothes, and, running down the bank, joined some navvies, his 

 companions, who were working on the railroad below us — leaving 

 us to our own reflections regarding the evolution of man and the 

 Millennium. 



These caves are well known to science. Two of them have been 

 cleared out, and their contents duly recorded in works relating to 

 pre-historic man. The smaller cave in which we stood has several 

 feet of soil almost undisturbed, and any visitor to Mentone, with a 

 few pounds to spare, might probably get leave to amuse himself next 

 Winter by clearing out the earth and collecting the bones and flints 

 and other treasures which lie buried there. We contented ourselves 

 by taking some flint chippings and a bone needle as mementoes of 

 our visit, and, scrambling down the bank again, we passed on to a 

 quarry by the road side, where the workmen have lately opened 

 out another cave, and where heaps of bones lie scattered about the 

 place. 



The old ganger, who has learnt the value of the relics found 

 within the caves, has many of these things for sale, and, as he has 

 picked up some information about them from the savants who have 

 been there, like Captain Cuttle in charge of the scientific instrument 

 maker's shop, he sets himself up as a man of science, and retails his 

 information to anyone who will listen. He begins with assuring his 

 hearers that his wares are of ^' grande antiquite," words he delights 

 to linger over and repeat ; then, taking a pointed flint, he bares his 

 arm and demonstrates how the primeval doctor used it as a lancet. 

 Then taking some red ochre and some charcoal found within the 

 cave, he smears a little on his face, to show that the cave dwellers 

 adorned themselves and were partial to rouge et noir, as their 

 descendants are at Monte Carlo now. The nummulites, found by 

 thousands in the rocks, he describes as the money of those days, and 

 then with great mystery he pulls out his tobacco-box, and, holding 

 up a human tooth found many yards below the soil, he declares it 



