6 RELIQTJUE AQDTTANIC^E. 



Neither in the two Caves of Les Eyzies and Moustier, nor in the three Bock- 

 shelters of La Madelaine and the two Laugeries, have any gnawed bones 

 occurred, excepting one specimen at La Madelaine, namely the head of the 

 femur of a Horse, bearing slight impressions of the sharp teeth of a young 

 Carnivore. 



Hence we may suppose that the natives who congregated in these caverns and 

 under these rockshelters had the means of closing them up, and preventing the 

 access of beasts of prey, such as certainly lived at that time in the country, for 

 their existence is proved by tolerably numerous remains of Wolves and Poxes in 

 the different localities explored by us. 



There is also another peculiarity meriting notice. This is the almost complete 

 absence of the back-bones of Ox and Horse in the several Stations mentioned 

 above, except at La Madelaine, where several dorsal and lumbar vertebrae of a 

 young Aurochs (?) have been collected. We may thence infer that the large 

 animals (Oxen and Horses), after having been slaughtered by the aboriginal 

 huntsmen, were cut up on the spot, and that only the extremities, with their 

 fleshy parts and marrow-bones, were carried away*. 



Of animals of less size, especially the Reindeer, the back-bones are found in 

 considerable numbers at all the Stations ; and at the cave of Les Eyzies we have 

 many times observed the dorsal vertebrae remaining in series : hence we may 

 presume that these animals were carried thither entire. 



Of all the animals the heads seem to have been always brought to the places of 

 meeting, probably for the sake of the brain ; for all are broken, and their frag- 

 ments only have been met with. 



Lastly, no bone referable to a Domestic Animal has been found in either 

 of the five Stations above mentioned; and among the countless thousands of 

 worked flints, of most varied types, which have been as yet collected, not one has 

 presented traces of intentional polish on any of its faces. These two circumstances, 

 combined with the constant presence of the Reindeer, suffice to distinguish 

 definitely this First Period of the Age of Stone simply worked t from the Second 



* In regard to Aurignac, we have attributed (Ann. Sc. Nat., 1861) the total disappearance of the vertebrae 

 of Ehinoceros, Aurochs, and Horse to the voracity of the Hygenas. The explanation now offered may be 

 more to the purpose. 



t To affirm absolutely that the Men of the Period of simply worked Stone did not know how to polish the 

 Stones which they fashioned into arms, implements, and instruments of diverse forms would be an imprudent 

 and not well-founded assertion. How, indeed, is it to be explained that the people who gave to their imple- 

 ments or weapons of stone forms so varied and often elegant, who finished them off for ordinary purposes 

 with oftentimes so delicate a touch, who, on the other hand, took the trouble to give to their needles of bone, 



