PREFACE. 



THE Description of the old Aquitanian Caves and their Contents, in a book 

 worthy of the subject, useful to Anthropologist and Archaeologist, and within 

 the reach of teacher and learner, was the well known intention of the late 

 HENRY CHRISTY; and he originated this Work with the hearty cooperation of 

 his friend EDOITARD LARTET, whose death, alas ! we also deplore. 



The death of one of these enthusiastic and devoted friends hindered an 

 exhaustive examination of the Caves in Aquitania ; and the description of what 

 had been collected in the Caves already explored has been sadly curtailed by 

 M. Lartet's decease. 



Besides the extended illustration of prehistoric objects, to which H. Christy's 

 further research in this district, by careful excavation of the Caves, would have 

 given rise, we have lost a valuable account of the Mammalian Remains, which 

 M. Lartet so well knew how to describe, comparing them with both extinct and 

 existing allies. 



"We have had occasion already, in our PREFATORY NOTICE, of November 1865, 

 and EDITORIAL NOTE, of February 1873, to explain the limitation of scope in this 

 Work, and the unavoidable delays in its publication. We need only thus allude 

 to the melancholy events causing these alterations in its plan and interruptions 

 in its progress. 



Many explorers in France have briefly noticed or described at large the 



