188 FOSSIL MEN. 



show that they belonged to men possessing similar 

 power. 



The beautiful work of Lartet and Christy has vividly 

 portrayed to us the antiquities of the limestone plateau 

 of the Dordogne the ancient Aquitania remains 

 which recall to us a population of Horites, or cave- 

 dwellers, of a time anterior to the dawn of history in 

 France, living much like the modern hunter-tribes of 

 America, and, as already stated, possibly contemporary, 

 in their early history at least, with the mammoth and 

 its extinct companions of the later Post-pliocene plains 

 and forests. We have already noticed the arts and 

 implements of these people ; but what manner of people 

 were they in themselves ? The answer is given by the 

 skeletons found in the cave of Cro-magnon. This is a 

 shelter or hollow under an overhanging ledge of lime- 

 stone, and excavated originally by the action of the 

 weather on a softer bed. It fronts the south-west and 

 the little river Yezere; and having originally been 

 about eight feet high and nearly twenty deep, must 

 have formed a cosey shelter from rain, or cold, or 

 summer sun, and with a pleasant outlook from its 

 front. All rude races have much sagacity in making 

 selections of this sort. Being nearly fifty feet wide, 

 it was capacious enough to accommodate several 

 families, and when in use it no doubt had trees or 

 shrubs in front, and may have been further completed 

 by stones, poles, or bark placed across the opening. 

 It seems, however, in the first instance to have been 

 used only at intervals, and to have been left vacant for 



