contemporaneously with the Reindeer, in France. 325 



Upon one of these slabs, which has reached us in an incom- 

 plete state in consequence of an ancient fracture, we can distin- 

 guish the fore quarters of a probably herbivorous quadruped, 

 of which the head must have been armed with horns, as far as 

 can be judged by the uncertain lines, which enter but slightly 

 into this rather hard rock. In the other slab we recognize more 

 readily a head, with the nostrils clearly marked, and the mouth 

 half open, but which has its profile-lines interrupted in the 

 frontal region by a sort of obliteration resulting from an appa- 

 rently artificial friction posterior to the preparation of the- en- 

 graving. A little in front upon the same slab there is the 

 design of a large antler, which, if it really belongs to this head, 

 would lead us, as you were the first to suggest, to refer it to 

 the Elk. 



Besides the ossiferous deposits of the interior of caves, which 

 are so numerous in the Perigord district, we may also investi- 

 gate there the analogous accumulations of organic debris which 

 rest against the great escarpments of the cretaceous rocks in 

 that region, and are sometimes sheltered merely by more or less 

 overhanging projections of the rock. These exterior deposits 

 likewise abound in worked fl;ints and in fractured bones of ani- 

 mals (horse, ox, ibex, chamois, reindeer, birds, fishes, &c.), 

 which have evidently served as food for the indigenous popula- 

 tions at this ancient period of the age of stone. The remains 

 of the common stag are very rare, as are also those of the wild 

 boar and the hare. We have found some isolated teeth of the 

 gigantic Irish deer [Megaceros hibernicus), and some detached 

 plates of the molars of the Mammoth [E. primigenius), exactly as 

 we observed them in the hearth of the funeral feasts of the an- 

 cient burying-place of Aurignac, without being able to explain 

 for what useful purpose these dentary laminae were preserved 

 thus isolated*. 



It is likewise in these exterior stations that we have collected 

 the finest worked flints, particularly at that of Laugerie-Haute, 

 where there seems to have been established a manufactory of 

 the fine lance-heads worked with little chips upon the two faces, 

 and with the margins slightly undulated. But we have probably 

 found only the refuse of this manufactory, as very few specimens 

 were entire amongst more than a hundred fragments which we 

 obtained. 



* This reminds us that, in the grotto of Les Eyzies, we have found a part 

 of the cortical portion of an elephant's tusk bearing traces of human work. 

 We also collected there a metacarpal bone of the small digit of a young 

 Velis of great size {Felis spelceal), on which are seen small cuts and nume- 

 rous scratches, produced by a cutting-tool, exactly like those which are 

 observed ujjon the bones of reindeer or horses which have been eaten by 

 men. 



