176 EELIQUIJi AQUITANIC2E. 



tioned by Caesar has, since the days of Gesner, been generally recognized as the 

 Reindeer ; so that less than 2000 years ago it was living in the Hercynian Forest ; 

 and though probably this forest was situate in Southern and Central Germany 

 and not in France, yet it is worth recording as at all events a curious coincidence 

 that some of the earlier authors place it near the Pyrenees*. On the whole, then, 

 it would appear that the Palaeontological evidence, though apparently fixing a limit 

 in one direction, as tending to show the deposits to be more recent than the Post- 

 Pliocene period, does not afford us any very precise indications in the other, 

 though suggestive of what, historically regarded, must be considered a very high 

 antiquity. 



Looking at the subject from an Archaeological point of view, it appears, first, 

 that from the vast number of objects of human workmanship contained in the 

 deposits, the accumulations at different spots must probably have extended over a 

 lengthened period; and, secondly, that, from the different character of the flint 

 implements found at Le Moustier, the beds there are of a somewhat different and 

 probably earlier age than the others. I have already mentioned that though 

 some of the implements found at Le Moustier approximate most closely to some 

 of those from the Postpliocene gravels of the Somme valley, yet this form shaded 

 off insensibly into another which has never been found in the river-gravels, though 

 occasionally recurring, with but slight modification, in others of these cave- 

 deposits. The other forms of flakes and scrapers are found, though with rather 

 different accompaniments, at all the other stations along the Valley of the Vezere. 

 Flakes, however, may be of any age ; and the flake chipped at the end into a semi- 

 circular form, to which the name of "scraper" or "graltoir" has been given, 

 seems to come under the same category. They are sold at the present day for 

 lighting tinder, are found on the surface, and in barrows and ancient encamp- 

 ments ; and one has occurred even in the Brixham Cave. As to the date of the 

 Le-Moustier implements, it will therefore be safest to suspend our opinion for the 

 present. With regard to the objects from the other deposits, there are some 

 which, if not giving a definite age, at all events seem to point to a definite stage 

 of civilization; I mean the more carefully chipped implements and arrow-heads, 

 of which a considerable number has been found at Badegoule, Laugerie, and the 

 Gorge d'Enfer, and which are analogous in all respects to those of what may be 

 termed the " ordinary Stone Period," such as have been found in so many places 

 both in the superficial soil and in barrows. Some of these forms, indeed, are 

 such as not improbably remained in use even after the introduction of the use of 



* Smith's ' Diet, of Geog.' sub. voce (Schol. ad Dionys. Perieg. 286). 



