520 Remews — Lartet S^ Duparc — 



are found, the superposition of different types of implements, must 

 surely prove something ; and it is, to say the least, unnatural to 

 assume that a race of low civilization would persist in remaining in 

 a neighbourhood deserted by the animals on which it lived, and alter 

 at once its habits, its weapons, and its life. 



Nor is it easy to fix the precise line of demarcation between these 

 Trogiodytic races and those who, more advanced in civilization, 

 constructed the Dolmens and the Tumuli of France or Iberia. Only 

 more extended research — a more complete collection of facts — 

 can do this. So far, we only know that the caverns, such as 

 those described in M. Lartet's brochure, contain chiefly stone or 

 bone, as characteristic of the " Trogiodytic race ;" while the suc- 

 ceeding, but still archaic, " Dolmenic " race can noAv be identified 

 as distinct from the next ("Tumulic"), or those whose places of 

 sepulture are indicated by tumuli only, by the fact that they formed 

 ornaments of bronze, and weapons of stone rather than weapons of 

 iron. 



The discoveries which form the subject of the elaborate and well- 

 illustrated pamphlet before us consist of a series of caves, with evi- 

 dences of human existence, which occur near Sorde, at the base of 

 the escarpment of Nummulitic Limestone forming the peninsula 

 separating the Gave de Pau and the Gave d'Oloron, the principal 

 affluents of the Adour. The main limestone ridge presents indica- 

 tions, in tumuli and entrenchments, of early occupation, both by the 

 Eomans and by races far anterior to them ; but the remains found 

 therein are of far later date, and present a much higher type of 

 civilization, than those discovered in the more primitive dwellings at 

 the foot of the high defensible land. 



The caves, as far as the present researches have extended, are five 

 in number ; the first three having been opened by M. Eaymond 

 Pottier in 1872-3, and the fourth and fifth since that date. The last 

 — described by MM. Lartet and Duparc as the " Grotto Duruthy," 

 after the proprietor of the land— was the richest in remains, and 

 forms the subject of the memoir. 



In each instance the hollows were natural cavities under the 

 overhanging rock, and, though, from the pile of debris accumulated 

 outside them, it is possible they were once larger, that is to say, before 

 the front edge of the superincumbent mass had crumbled or broken 

 away, they must have been of small capacity ; and now the Duruthy 

 Cave measures only about 25 to 30 feet by 6 feet. 



The great value of this pamphlet lies in the very complete manner 

 in which well-authenticated instances of the mode of life of existing 

 races are introduced to give means of comparison, and basis for theo- 

 retical discussion. 



J. G. Georgi's book, published in 1776, descriptive of the various 

 races forming the vast Empire of Eussia, is quoted to furnish us with 

 descriptions of the life and habitation of the nomadic and barbarous 

 tribes that, subsisting by reindeer-hunting and fishing, line the 

 coasts and inlets of the Northern seas. 



Finns and Wogouls, Tchouktsches and Kamschatsdales, living by 



