PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OP PRE-HISTORIC MEN. 189 



considerable portions of time. Perhaps it was visited 

 only by hunting or war parties. Bat subsequently it 

 was permanently occupied, and this for so long a time 

 that in some places a foot and a half of ashes and car- 

 bonaceous matter with bones, implements, etc., was 

 accumulated. By this time the height of the cavern 

 had been much diminished, and instead of clearing it 

 out for future use, it was made a place of burial in 

 which four or five individuals were interred. Of these, 

 two were men, one of great age, the other probably 

 in the prime of life. A third was a woman of about 

 thirty or forty years of age. The other remains were 

 too fragmentary to give very certain results. 



These bones, with others to be mentioned in con- 

 nection with them, unquestionably belong to the 

 oldest human inhabitants known in western Europe. 

 They have been most carefully examined by several 

 competent anatomists and archaeologists, and the 

 results have been published with excellent figures in 

 the " Reliquiae Aquitanicaa." They are, therefore, of 

 the utmost interest for our present purpose, and I 

 shall try so to divest the descriptions of anatomical 

 details, as to give a clear notion of their character. 

 The " Old Man of Cro-magnon " was of great stature, 

 being nearly six feet high. More than this, his bones 

 show that he was of the strongest and most athletic 

 muscular development a Samson in strength; and 

 the bones of the limbs have the peculiar form which 

 is characteristic of athletic men habituated to rough 

 walking, climbing, and running : for this is, I believe, 



