BONE- AND CAVE-DEPOSITS OF THE EEINDEER-PEEIOD. 167 



gularly flattened, though approaching occasionally in form to what have been 

 termed sling-stones, or even to some of the ruder flint implements from the river- 

 gravels of the Valley of the Somme and elsewhere. But the most remarkable 

 forms are those presented by a series of implements of common occurrence at 

 Le Moustier, but which I had never before met with. These are made from 

 flints, some of considerable, size, either flat by nature or wrought into a flattened 

 shape so as to be conveniently held in the hand, and carefully chipped along 

 one side to an evenly curved cutting edge. In some cases this edge is con- 

 tinued round the end of the flint so as to produce a rounded cutting point ; and 

 occasionally the flint has been chipped into an ovato-lanceolate form with a cutting 

 edge nearly or quite all round. These latter bear the strongest resemblance to some 

 of the flint implements from the river-deposits at Abbeville, from which indeed they 

 can hardly be distinguished in form. There are, however, at Le Moustier all the 

 intermediate forms between them and the flat flints chipped at one side only into 

 a cutting edge with a more or less circular outline like a very large " scraper." 



So much for the contents of the Cavern ; the question now arises how it became 

 filled to such an extent, as, though a great portion of the beds is evidently the 

 result of human occupation, yet the cause why the debris should have accumulated 

 up to the roof of the Cavern is not so apparent. As to the origin of the lowest bed 

 (No. 5) I can pronounce no decided opinion, as it appears to be uncertain whether 

 worked flints and fractured bones occur in it or not ; but it seems by no means 

 impossible that the rolled flints with which it abounds may be connected with or 

 derived from a high-level gravel of the river. The bed above it, containing the 

 hearth-stones, is of course the result of human occupation of the recess at the time 

 when there was probably a clear space of some 4 or 5 feet above the floor. The 

 difficulty is to explain the presence of the upper beds. It appears, however, that 

 the stratum of rock forming the floor of the Cave originally extended, as a broad 

 ledge, some 30 or 40 feet in advance of the present line of cliff above. In fact 

 the whole hill at this particular spot is divided into several steps or stages, giving 

 it a general trap-like outline. I would suggest, as a possible hypothesis, that 

 on this ledge, which was possibly protected by some portion of the roof of the 

 recess which has now been weathered away, the ancient occupants of the 

 station lodged when the height of the back of the Cave had been diminished by 

 the accumulation on the floor, and had thus been rendered less habitable. After 

 this desertion of the back of the Cave, the sand resulting from the decomposition 

 of the rocks around accumulated on the old floor by atmospheric agency, and 

 subsequently, as the kjokken-modding outside the recess increased in height, the 



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