618 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



their association aud superposition. There are many ilhistrations to be 

 given. The Grotte de Placard is situated on the banks of the river 

 Tardoire, a branch of the Charente in the department of the same name. 

 A cut of this grotte is given in Plate xc, Fig. 1. By its side is shown 

 a section of the grotte made during its excavation. It is drawn to scale 

 and shows the various strata of earth or debris with which the grotte 

 was filled. The top layer was naturally the last in point of time to be 

 laid down; the bottom was just as naturally the first. The divisions 

 in the scale from the bottom to the top represent the various strata 

 found during the excavation aud their component parts show by their 

 differences how they were deposited, each one subsequent to the other, 

 and what were the distinctions between the habits or industries of the 

 man who successively occupied the cavern during the filling of the re- 

 spective strata. 



A. — Strata of small pieces of rock aud debris fallen from the roof of the cavern, and 

 separating the archteologic layers: No traces of human industry, and, conse- 

 quently, man was not present. 



B. — A stratum of the same with a tine streak of clay. 



C. — The top archieologic strata, 38 centimeters in thickness, belongs to the neolithic 

 period for it contained pieces of property, fragments of polished stone flint 

 hatchets, barbed arrow-heads, together with the bones of modern animals. 



D, E, F, and H. — Four strata with the characteristic fauna and objects of industry 

 of the prehistoric period, Madal6nian epoch. These four, together with the 

 intermediate strata are nigh 4 meters (5 feet) in thickness. 



I. — A stratum of Solutrian industry of the finer and later order. Flint arrow or 

 spear-heads with shoulder on one end. 



K. — A stratum of the lower or earlier Solutrian with leaf-shaped implements. 



L. — Stratum Moiistierian with a characteristic point. 



Although this evidence of chronologic and successive occupations 

 can be repeated in many cases, yet it has not been universally ac- 

 cepted, and when accepted it has been with a different classification 

 and nomenclature. The division into epochs according to the classifi- 

 cation here adopted is not laid down as a hard and fast rule. It is 

 only tentative and liable to be changed aud modified by future dis- 

 coveries. Whether all these subdivisions of the paleolithic period 

 extended to and were developed in other countries than France has 

 not been determined, and there are persons of both ways of thinking. 

 The principal cause of my willingness to adopt the theory is that it 

 makes a segregation of the objects and implements of the paleolithic 

 period, and gives them a nomenclature by which they can be described 

 and understood 5 it provides'a common language for both hearer and 

 speaker. 



The man of the paleolithic period left no monuments. It appears 

 that he built no houses for either the living or the dead. Indeed, it is 

 doubtful if the dead were buried or had any place of sepulcher. The 

 general belief is that he made no pottery. The sole exceptions to this 

 have arisen in Belgium, since the discovery by M. Dupont in the 

 Grotte de Furfooz, and MM. Fraipont and Lohest in the Grotte de Spy. 



