264 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



stream, and which must have been introduced there by human agency. 

 Some of those pebbles of considerable bulk, principally those of gra- 

 nite, are flattened on one side, rounded in their contour, and scooped 

 out on the top, with a cavity of greater or less depth, which presents 

 traces of repeated rubbing. 



There were also in the grotto of Eyzies numerous fragments of a 

 schistoid rock of considerable hardness, and upon two plates of this 

 rock we could discern partial tepresentations of animal forms engraved 

 in outline. We suppose that these are the first observed examples of 

 engraving upon stone in that ancient phase of the human epoch, when 

 the reindeer still inhabited the temperate regions of the Europe of 

 our day. Upon one of those plates, which has come to our hands in 

 an imperfect state in consequence of an ancient fracture, may be dis- 

 tinguished the fore part of a quadruped — probably of a herbivoroug 

 species — and the head of which must have been armed with horns, so 

 far at least as one can judge from lines of engraving undecided in 

 their character, and penetrating but slightly into this rock, which is 

 relatively so hard. On the other plate we recognize more readily a 

 Lead, with clearly defined nostrils, and half open mouth; but the 

 outlines are interrupted in the frontal region by a sort of erasure, re- 

 sulting from a fracture, apparently artificial, and subsequent to the 

 engraving. Beside, and a little in advance of this, we distinguish 

 the design of a large palm-like figure, which, if it really belongs to 

 this head, would lead us, as you were the first to suggest, to assign it 

 to the elk. Besides the ossiferous deposits of the interior of the 

 caverns, which are so numerous in Perigord, we can also study there 

 analogous accumulations of organic remains, leaning against the large 

 escarpments of the cretaceous limestones of this district, and some- 

 times simply sheltered by projections of rocks more or less over- 

 hanging. These external deposits are equally rich in cut flints and in 

 the broken bones of animals, — the horse, the ox, the wild goat, the 

 chamois, the reindeer, birds, fish, &c., — which evidently served as 

 food for the indigenous tribes during this ancient period of the stone 

 age. The remains of the common stag are here very rare, as well as 

 those of the wild boar and the hare. We found there some isolated 

 teeth of the gigantic stag of Ireland (Megaceros Hibernicus), and 

 some detached laminse of molars of the elephant {E. primigenius) 

 precisely as we have observed them at the scenes of the funeral en- 

 tertainments of the ancient burial-places of Aurignac, without being 



