190 RELATIVE ANTIQUITY OF AURIGNAC FOSSILS. chap. x. 



other places. An argument, however, having an opposite 

 leaning may perhaps be founded on the phenomena of 

 Avirignac. It may — indeed, it has been said, that they imply 

 that some of the extinct mammalia survived nearl}' to our 

 time. 



First, — Because of the modern style of the woi-ks of art 

 at Aurignac. 



Secondly, — Because of the absence of any signs of change 

 in the physical geogi-aphy of the country since the cave was 

 used for a place of sepulture. 



In reference to the first of these propositions, the utensils, 

 it is said, of bone and stone indicate a more advanced state of 

 the arts than the flint implements of Abbeville and Amiens. 

 M. Lartet, however, is of opinion that they do not, and thinks 

 that we have no right to assume that the fabricators of the 

 various spcar-headed and other tools of the valley of the 

 Somme possessed no bone instruments or ornaments resem- 

 bling those discovered at Aurignac. These last, moreover, 

 he regards as extremely rude in comparison with others of the 

 stone period in France, which can be proved palaDontologically, 

 at least by strong negative evidence, to be of subsequent date. 

 Thus, for exam})le, at Savigne, near Civray, in the department 

 of Vienne, there is a cave in which thei"e are no extinct mam- 

 malia, but where remains of the reindeer abound. The 

 works of art of the stone period found there indicate con- 

 siderable progress in skill beyond that attested by the objects 

 found in the Aurignac grotto. Among the Savigne articles 

 thei-e is a stag's horn, on which figures of two animals, ap- 

 parently'' meant for deer, ai'e engraved in outline, as if by a 

 sharp-pointed flint. In another cave, that of Massat, in the 

 department of Ariege, which M. Lartet ascribes to the period 

 of the aurochs, a quadruped which survived the reindeer in 

 the south of France, there are bone instruments of a still more 

 advanced state of the arts, as, for example, barbed arrows 



