PEIMEYAL MAN. 629 



of the extinct Irish, elk, and also detached plates of the 

 niolar teeth of the Mammoth. 



Laugerie-Haute would seem to have been especially the 

 locality where flint-implements were made, and Laugerie- 

 Basse that where reindeer horns were converted into spear- 

 heads, harpoons, daggers, arrow-heads, needles, and other 

 implements. Here an enormous accumulation of reindeer 

 horns were discovered, nearly the whole of which bore the 

 marks of a stone-saw, by which pieces had been detached 

 suitable for conversion. Here also were found the principal 

 sculptured objects, some of which, considering the period and 

 the nature of the tools, are marvels both of artistic design 

 and of execution. 



The most remarkable is a long dagger or short thrust- 

 sword, formed out of a single horn. The handle represents 

 the body of a reindeer, the parts in fair proportion, and 

 treated with singular skill and art-feeling, in subservience to 

 the use for which it was intended. The forelegs are folded 

 easily under the body ; the hindlegs drawn out insensibly 

 into the blade; the salient horns and ears are cleverly applied 

 to the chest by giving an upward bend to the head ; and a 

 convenient hollow for the grip of the hand is produced by a 

 continuous curve extending from the rump to the muzzle. 

 M. Lartet remarks that the hand for which it was designed 

 must have been much smaller than that of the existing 

 European races. The weapon was evidently left by the 

 artist-savage unfinished ; but, as a design imbued with taste, 

 it will bear a very favourable comparison with Oriental 

 dagger-handles cut in ivory. 



Another specimen is described as a handle terminating at 

 one end in a spear-point, and bearing in partial relief the 

 heads of a horse and of a deer, probably reindeer. Others 

 are ornamented with longitudinal and parallel wavy lines, 

 &c. A distinct class consists of palmated portions of reindeer 

 horns, bearing representations of animal forms — some exe- 

 cuted in graved lines, others in bas-relief or in high relief. 

 One of these palmations exhibits a figure of a large herbi- 

 vorous animal which has been conjecturally referred to the 

 Aurochs. Another is supposed to represent an ox, probably 

 Bos primigenius (?). The collection, judging by the drawings 

 which I have seen, is very rich in spear-heads, barbed 

 harpoons, arrow-heads, and finely pointed slender needles, 

 drilled with an eye-hole. The harpoons bear a close resem- 

 blance to the Esquimaux patterns. On one object the figure 

 of a scaly fish is distinctly represented. The ornaments 

 consist of canines of wolf, incisors of ox and other animals, 

 with ear-bones of horse or ox, all drilled for suspension. One 



