CAVE OF CRO-MAGNON. 63 



authenticity of this discovery, confided to me the scientific examination of the 

 Cave ; and of this mission the following are the principal results*. 



The rocky cliffs out of which are hollowed the caves on the banks of the Vezere 

 consist of the edges of the nearly horizontal strata of Cretaceous Limestones t, 

 which the river and watercourses have deeply cut in excavating their beds. The 

 faces of the cliffs present great parallel furrows or flutings, at several different 

 levels and of great length. At first sight these chamfered lines seem attributable 

 to the rapid and long-continued passage of strong currents much above the 

 present level of the river ; but on further examination we easily see that these 

 parallel flutings have been produced by the incessant degradation of the soft, 

 laminated, and therefore absorbent beds intercalated among harder strata, under 

 the influence of atmospheric agents, particularly frost. This explanation, adopted 

 by my father J, has been developed with much sagacity by M. Alain Laganne. 

 Among the proofs which he has advanced, the most conclusive appears to me to 

 be furnished by the fact that at certain places, where the inclination of the lime- 

 stone bands have a direction different from that of the fall of the river-bed, 

 the flutings follow the dip of the bands, thus showing their independence of the 

 slope of the valley. To show this I give a sketch (fig. 37) of the arrangement of 

 the chamfered lines along the rocks bordering the Vezere, to the right and left 

 of the Koc de Tayac. 



In accordance with the greater energy of atmospheric action there have been 

 produced in these cliffs the flutings, the rock-shelters, and the true caves, in 

 which the Reindeer- Hunters could find a refuge and a home. 



* See also the preliminary notice, read before the Meeting of the Delegates of Scientific Societies, at the 

 Sorbonne, April 16, 1868, by MM. Louis Lartet, Broca, Pruner-Bey, and Quatrefages ; Mortillet's ' Materiaux 

 pour 1'Histoire de 1'Homme,' vol. iv. p. 150. 



Since authorizing the immediate publication of the discovery of the Cro-Magnon Cave and its contents 

 in the 'Reliquiae Aquitanicse,' the Minister of Public Instruction has determined that all the Human 

 Remains found in the Cave shall be deposited in the Anthropological Collection of the Museum of Natural 

 History at Paris. His Excellency has also decided that painted casts of the Human Skulls and other 

 important specimens shall be made, for distribution, together with the worked flints, shells, and other 

 accompanying objects, to different Museums and Scientific Institutions. One series of these casts and 

 specimens will be presented to the Christy Collection, and another to the Anthropological Society of London. 



f See above, pages 3 and 33. t See above, page 3. 



See his "Note sur les erosions des Calcaires denudes de la vallee de la Vezere et de ses affluents," in 

 the ' Ann. d'Agric. Sc. et Arts de la Dordogne,' vol. xxix. pp. 192 &c., February 1868. Taking as a term 

 of comparison the erosions effected since a well-determined date, M. Laganne has been able to calculate 

 approximately that, in the natural process of chamfering, these flutings are deepened 15 millimetres 

 (0-6 inch) in twenty years. 



K 2 



