CAVE OP CRO-MAGNON. 71 



4 metres away from the preceding, shows the same alternation and succession 

 of the detrital and the carbonaceous layers. We here find, at the upper part of 

 bed I, no trace of the thin upper hearth-layer ; but its level seems to be indicated 

 by a little bed (J), the constituent particles of which are more or less coated with 

 stalagmite. This was probably the floor of the cave previously to its being 

 definitely filled with the accumulated debris (K). 



What this last section shows us as particularly remarkable are the great slabs (<?), 

 occurring at different levels, but principally above the carbonaceous layers. They 

 have fallen from the roof of the cave at different times ; and some of them were 

 so large as to require gunpowder for their removal. Similar blocks, of less size, 

 were scattered nearly throughout the Cavern, as shown by the sections and plan 

 (figs. 41, 42, and 43) ; and they were notably accumulated in great numbers over- 

 against the pillar (fig. 41) which we had to build, as above described (p. 66). 



To resume : The presence, at all levels, of the same kind of flint scrapers, as 

 finely chipped as those of the Gorge d'Enfer, and of the same animals as in that 

 classic Station, evidently shows them to be relics of the successive habitation of the 

 Cro-Magnon Shelter by the same race of Nomadic Hunters, who at first could use 

 it merely as a rendezvous, where they came to share the spoils of the chase taken in 

 the neighbourhood ; but coming again, they made a more permanent occupation, 

 until their accumulated refuse and the debris gradually raised the floor of the cave, 

 leaving the inconvenient height of only 1'20 metre between it and the roof; and 

 then they abandoned it by degrees, returning once more at last to conceal their 

 dead there. No longer accessible, except perhaps to the Foxes above noticed, this 

 Shelter and its strange Sepulture were slowly and completely hidden from sight 

 by atmospheric degradation bringing down the earthy covering, which, by its 

 thickness alone, proves the great antiquity of the burial in the cave. 



The presence of the remains of an enormous Bear, of the Mammoth, of the 

 great Cave-Lion, of the Reindeer, the Spermophile, &c. in the hearth-beds 

 strengthens in every way this estimation of their antiquity; and this can be 

 rendered more rigorously still if we base our argument on the predominance 

 of the Horse here in comparison with the Reindeer, on the form of the worked 

 flints and of the bone arrow- and dart-heads, and on the above-mentioned 

 indications of hunting, as well as on the absence of any engraving or carving. 

 Hence we may refer this Station of Cro-Magnon to the age immediately preceding 

 that artistic period which saw in this country the first attempts of the Engraver 

 and the Sculptor. 



Whence came these ancient men of the Vezere ? Here the Geologist must be 



