24 The Primitive Inhabitants 



utensils of rough stone, which have so puzzled archae- 

 ologists, but which the Danish antiquaries take to be 

 implements used in chipping off and forming flint im- 

 plements. The bones about this fire-place were many 

 of them gnawed by some carniverous beast, the soft 

 ends quite eaten away, and among the ashes were found 

 fossil excrements of the hyena. Here was indubitable 

 evidence that man had eaten the mammoth and rhinoc- 

 eros; that he had interred a cave bear while the bones 

 were still covered with flesh, and that the hyena had 

 banqueted on the remains of his feast. 



In England, in a cave containing bones of those ex- 

 tinct animals, a well-formed flint arrow-head was found 

 lying under the entire leg of a cave bear, all the most 

 delicate bones of which were in position, showing that 

 it had been deposited there when bound together with 

 its ligaments at least, if not covered with flesh. In the 

 cave of Engis, in Belgium, a human skull was found 

 with the same surroundings, imbedded in breccia, under 

 a floor of stalagmite. 



The caves are not the only repositories of evidence. 

 Strata of drift, filled with post-pliocene remains, have 

 also yielded stone arrow-heads and hatchets. M. Bou- 

 cher de Perthes first discovered them in the valley of 

 the Somme, in Northern France. Excavations made 

 to obtain earth for the fortifications of Abbeville, and 

 railway cuttings, gave him ample opportunity to explore 

 this formation. In 1841, he began to collect the im- 

 plements so found ; but all his statements were met 

 with quiet skepticism, or turned off with the remark 

 that his so-called arrow-heads and hatchets were acci- 

 dental natural forms. He set about collecting all the 



