168 



RELIQULE AQUITANIOE. 



refuse of the meals was thrown back over the layer of sand ; and then, after the 

 desertion of the Cave, the talus, which accumulated by successive falls from the 

 face of the cliff, filled up the recess entirely in front and nearly to the roof at the 

 back, and finally, by the weathering away of the edge of the ledge of rock on 

 which it rested, was partially removed from outside the recess. 



On a lower edge of the hill at Le Moustier is a. second deposit containing 

 worked flints and bones, but which we had not the opportunity of narrowly 

 examining; the whole neighbourhood, indeed, appears to abound with similar 

 remains. On the opposite side of the river the cliff is replete with rock-habitations 

 of a later period. In a brickfield near the village I found a number of flint flakes, 

 some of them imbedded at depths of from 4 to 5 feet in the alluvium. 



La Madelaine. The next spot we visited in descending the Ve"zere was the 

 station, near the ancient castle of La Madelaine, which has been and still is under 

 examination by Messrs. Lartet and Christy. It lies at the foot of the cliff on the 

 north bank of the river, about 30 yards distant from it ; and the upper surface of 

 the deposit is not more than 20 feet above the level of the stream, so as to be even 

 now within reach of the highest floods. The beds, which must be about 50 feet 

 in length by about 25 feet in width and 8 to 10 feet in thickness, lie in a recess 

 under the overhanging cliff, a portion of which appears, however, to have fallen 

 off not more than a century or two ago, at the most. The upper bed consists 

 principally of rubble from the cliff above ; but the lower part of the deposit is a 

 regular kjokken-modding, rich beyond conception in the rude implements formed 

 by the primitive occupants of the spot. Flint flakes of all sizes, many of them of 

 most symmetrical form, some of great length and others of most diminutive size, 

 " scrapers " of various forms and sizes, and cores or nuclei of flint abound. Inter- 

 spersed in the deposit are numerous large stones used as hearths, and occasionally, 

 as it appears, arranged to form a sort of oven. There are also numbers of large 

 pebbles of quartz, granite, and other rocks, some few of which, of spheroidal form, 

 have had a slight recess worked in one of their faces so as to look like a sort of 

 mortar ; a few others bear traces of rubbing upon them ; and many others, espe- 

 cially of quartz, have their edges battered, or have even been broken, by having 

 been used as hammers. A few flint cores bear traces also of having been used in 

 the same manner. Some of the flakes and scrapers have been broken diagonally 

 from each side so as to produce a pointed end or tang, as if for insertion into a 

 handle, or for use as a narrow chisel. But in addition to the worked flints, the 

 beds contain a large number of implements, of various forms and sizes, made of 



