6 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



eight or ten feet, and a length of sixty or seventy feet. The cave-people of the 

 Vezere district were more advanced and lived at a later period than the men 

 whose implements are found in the drift-beds of the Somme and of other rivers. 

 These conclusions have been drawn from the fauna of the caves and from the 

 greater skill displayed by the cave-dwellers in the manufacture of their imple- 

 ments of war and peace. At the time when these caves served as the abodes of 

 hunting-tribes, the mammoth, cave-hyena, cave-lion, cave-bear, gigantic Irish 

 deer, and others, had not yet become extinct, but had apparently much decreased 

 in number, while the reindeer, now inhabiting the northernmost portions of 

 Europe, was prevailing, for which reason this epoch has been styled the Reindeer- 

 period by archaeologists. Together with the reindeer, as common in the time of 

 its preponderance, must be mentioned the horse, aurochs, ibex, and chamois, 

 the last two of which have now left the lowlands and sought refuge in the more 

 congenial temperature of Alpine heights. The Antilope saiga, an animal which 

 now inhabits portions of Russia and Asia, belonged at that time to the fauna of 

 Europe, as shown by a number of its bones found by M. Lartet and others. Re- 

 mains of the mammoth and of the other extinct quadrupeds previously mentioned 

 are of very rare occurrence in these caves, insomuch that it would appear doubt- 

 ful whether the cave-men co-existed with them, if their representations, traced 

 on horn and bone, or carved from such substances, had not been found in some 

 of the caves. The character of the cave-fauna indicates a still rigid climate. 



The animals most frequently hunted by the troglodytes, and furnishing their 

 principal food, were the reindeer and the horse ; the first-named quadruped being 

 of additional value to them on account of its antlers, which they worked very 

 skillfully into implements of various descriptions. It appears, however, that 

 they fed on every kind of animal they could obtain by force or cunning, not 

 excepting carnivores, such as wolves and foxes. Remains of the stag are said to 

 be rare, and still rarer those of the wild boar. At some stations bones of birds 

 and fishes occur abundantly. Further on I shall speak more in detail concerning 

 the latter remains. It does not appear that these people kept any domesticated 

 animals ; neither the reindeer nor the horse seems to have been tamed by them. 

 They had no sheep, goats, or cattle, and there were no dogs to protect the cave- 

 men's rude dwellings or to share with them the excitement of the chase. 



The reindeer-hunters of the Dordogne displayed, as has been stated, much 

 more skill in the manufacture of implements than the people whose relics are 

 found in the river-gravels and in the cave-deposits of earlier date. Flint con- 

 tinued to be the kind of stone almost exclusively used by them ; but the articles 

 made of this material show a great variety of forms, and sometimes a finish 

 which almost assimilates them to the manufactures of the later or neolithic phase 

 of the stone age. Yet, the people of the Vezere Valley were still ignorant of the 

 art of grinding and polishing stone implements, no article thus improved having 



