102 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



Palaeolithic series. Near Montaigle, for example, there are 

 several caves the fhwiatile deposits in which must belong to very 

 different stages. Of this group the Trou de l'Erable occurs at a 

 level of nearly 200 feet (60 metres) above the river Molignee, 

 the Trous du Sureau, du Chene, and du Lievre, are between 98 

 feet and 115 feet (30 and 35 metres), while the Trou de Philippe 

 is not more than 33 feet (10 metres). The loam that lies in the 

 Trou de l'Erable was introduced at a period when the river was 

 flowing at a very high level — at least 197 feet above the present 

 stream. In the course of time the valley was gradually deepened, 

 and the river was no longer able to flood the Trou de l'Erable, 

 but just succeeded in now and then reaching the caves at the 

 lower levels. The river's bed had in fact been lowered in the 

 interim by about 170 feet, and this of itself implies the lapse of 

 a very long time indeed. Hence the loam in the Trou de 

 l'Erable is justly considered to be much older than the similar 

 deposit that forms the floor of the caves at a less elevation. Its 

 contents show that man, mammoths, bears, hyaenas, reindeer, and 

 other animals, were even at that distant date living in Belgium ; 

 but it is in the caves at lower levels wbere the most numerous 

 and interesting relics of the Palaeolithic Period are found. 



One of these, the Trou du Sureau (108 feet above the river 

 Molignee), appears to have been long occupied, at successive 

 times, as a place of abode by Palaeolithic man — the successive 

 occupations being represented by old " surfaces," or " floors," 

 which are marked by precisely the same kind of features. Each 

 is made up of quantities of bones, split, broken, and burnt, com- 

 mingled with which are flakes and fragments of flint — the ddbris 

 resulting from the manufacture and breakage of stone imple- 

 ments. Traces of fire were seen in the burnt or baked earth of 

 the floor, and in the mixture of cinders and charcoal that 

 appeared in the middle of the cave. The bones and implements 

 were always most abundant in the vicinity of the old hearth. 



The flint implements are of rude make, and somewhat 

 triangular in form. They consist of a poor kind of flint, got in 

 the neighbourhood, and show usually one plane surface, the 



