BONE- AND CAVE-DEPOSITS OF THE REINDEER-PERIOD. 173 



indubitable " kjokken-modding " seem inconsistent with their presence being due 

 to any ordinary sepulture, and to be rather suggestive of one of those periods of 

 famine which must of necessity occasionally occur among a people entirely de- 

 pendent upon the chase for its means of subsistence, and under the pressure of 

 which men of far higher civilization than the ancient occupants of these caves 

 have been driven to support their own life at the expense of that of one of their 

 fellow-beings. 



Relative Antiquity of the Caves and their Contents. Our concern here is not, 

 however, with the mode of life or the ethnological peculiarities of these ancient 

 inhabitants of Perigord, but with the antiquity of the deposits containing their 

 remains. 



To arrive at some approximate estimate of this, there are four methods of 

 inquiry open. "We may to some extent judge of it : 



1. Prom Geological considerations with regard to the character and position 



of the Caves. 



2. Prom the Palseontological evidence of the remains found in them. 



3. Prom the Archaeological character of the objects of human workman- 



ship ; and 



4. Prom a comparison with similar deposits in neighbouring districts in 



Prance. 



Under the first head of inquiry the subject is fortunately free from any ques- 

 tions as to the "diluvial" or aqueous origin of the deposits questions which in 

 other cases have led to so much discussion, especially among Prench geologists. 

 Notwithstanding the presence of numerous rolled pebbles, common in the ad- 

 jacent gravels, but which have been brought in for the purpose of being used as 

 hammers, hearth-stones, and heaters, the deposits are beyond all doubt the refuse- 

 heaps arising from the human habitation of the caves kjokken-mod dings pure 

 and simple. As far, then, as Geological evidence of their antiquity goes, it is 

 merely a question as to what changes have taken place in the valley since their 

 accumulation ; for the time necessary for the formation of the stalagmite which 

 in some cases overlies them, or of the calcareous breccia into which they have 

 occasionally been converted, is so dependent upon variable conditions that it 

 seems needless to take it into account. These changes in the valley have then, it 

 must be confessed, been but slight. The face of the cliff above many of the 

 recesses cannot have weathered away more than a foot or two at the utmost since 

 their occupation ; and though in some cases, as at Le Moustier and one of the 



2B 



