ANCIENT GERMANS* INHABITED CAVES. 253 



state, either in Europe or elsewhere. The destruction of 

 the forests in which they found shelter, the drying up of the 

 lakes, on the borders of which they found their food, and 

 partial convulsions of nature, sufficiently account, says Dr. 

 Hibbert, for their extinction. In this view, the investigation 

 of the caves in which human bones are found is as much 

 the province of the antiquary as of the geologist. The 

 same geologist assumes as an hjrpothesis, that the tribes in- 

 habiting Europe, previous to the historical times, were in a 

 state similar to that of the Fins described by Tacitus, — as 

 leading an almost brutish life, destitute even of the ear- 

 liest rudiments of the arts. Such beings might well be 

 conceived to contend with the beasts, above whom they 

 ■were so Uttle elevated, for places of shelter they knew not 

 how to construct ; or, at all events, they might crawl like 

 the beasts, or the New-Hollanders, into caves or caverns to 

 conceal their dying agonies. At this period the bones 

 could scarcely have been deposited in caves for the purpose 

 of inhumation, the idea of sepulture belonging to a more 

 advanced state. The rude fragments of earthenware found 

 in the same caves belonged to an extremely rude and very 

 early period. The Celtic and Gothic tribes, who sup- 

 planted the aborigines of Europe, seemed to have reached 

 the agricultural state. The Germans are described as in- 

 habiting houses built of gross and unhewn materials, con- 

 structed without the aid of mortar ; and also caves, into 

 which they retired for shelter from the inclemency of the 

 winter, as do the inhabitants of some coimtries in Northern 

 Asia at present. Traces of these ancient subterraneous 

 habitations are still to be met with in Germany, but much 

 more frequently in France and Italy, where the nature of the 

 rock is more favourable to the task of excavation, and they 

 are most numerous in the south of France. Each cave ap- 

 pears to have been entered by a low chink or fissure, situated 

 almost half way between the floor of the cave and its roof, 

 and differing as little as possible from the level of the avenue 

 by which it was approached. Sometimes the caves are 

 isolated, sometimes they are found in groups. These caves 

 continued to be used even during the feudal period, as 

 could be proved by descriptions of caves met with in dif- 

 ferent parts of Europe, particularly in the south of France. 

 We recommend to the particular attention of travellen 



