CAVES IN THE DORDOGNE. 245 



trust, however, to be able to show that this is not the 

 case. 



During the last year M. Lartet, in conjunction with 

 Mr. Christy, has examined with great care a number of small 

 caves and rock- shelters in the Dordogne, some of which had 

 already attracted the attention of archaeologists.* These 

 caves are particularly interesting, because, so far, at least, as 

 we can judge from the present state of the evidence, they 

 belong to M. Lartet's reindeer period, and tend, therefore, 

 to connect the later or Polished Stone age with the period 

 of the river-drifts and the great extinct mammalia ; repre- 

 senting a period about which we had previously very 

 little information. Those which have been most carefully 

 examined are ten in number, viz., Laugerie, La Madelaine, 

 Les Eyzies, La Gorge d'Enfer, Le Moustier, Liveyre, Pey de 

 TAze, Combe- Granal, and Badegoule, most of which I have 

 myself had the advantage of visiting. Some of these, as, for 

 instance, Les Eyzies and Le Moustier, are at a considerable 

 height above the stream, but others as those at La Made- 

 laine and Laugerie are little above the present flood-line, 

 showing, therefore, that the level of the river is now nearly 

 the same as it was at the period during which these caves 

 were inhabited. 



The rivers of the Dordogne run in deep valleys cut through 

 calcareous strata ; and while the sides of the valleys in chalk 

 districts are generally sloping, in this case, owing probably 

 to the hardness of the rock, they are very frequently vertical. 

 Small caves and grottoes frequently occur; besides which, 

 as the different strata possess unequal powers of resistance 

 against atmospheric influences, the face of the rock is, as it 

 were, scooped out in many places, and thus " rock-shelters" 

 are produced. In very ancient times these caves and rock- 



* De I'Origine et de 1'Enfance des Arts en Perigord. Par M. I' Abbe Audierne. 



