246 CAVES IN THE DORDOGNE. 



shelters were Inhabited by men, who have left behind them 

 abundant evidences of their presence. But as civilisation 

 advanced, man, no longer content with the natural, but in- 

 convenient, abode thus offered to him, excavated chambers 

 for himself, and in places the whole face of the rock is honey- 

 combed with doors and windows leading into suites of rooms, 

 often in tiers one over another, so as to suggest the idea of a 

 French Petra. In the troublous times of the middle ages 

 many of these, no doubt, served as very efficient fortifications, 

 and even now some of them are still in use as storehouses, 

 and for other purposes. At Brantome I saw an old chapel 

 which had been cut in the solid rock, and resembled the 

 descriptions given of the celebrated rock-cut temples in India. 

 Apart from the scientific interest, it was impossible not 

 to enjoy the beauty of the scene which passed before our eyes 

 as we dropped down the Vezere. As the river visited some- 

 times one side of its valley, sometimes the other, so we had 

 at one moment rich meadow lands on each side, or found 

 ourselves close to the perpendicular and almost overhanging 

 cliff. Here and there we came upon some picturesque old 

 castle, and though the trees were not in full leaf, the rocks 

 were in many places green with box and ivy and evergreen 

 oak, which harmonised well with the rich yellow brown of 

 the stone itself. 



But to return to the bone-caves. Remains of the cave- 

 bear have been found at the Pey de TAze, of the cave-hyaBna 

 at Le Moustier, and separated plates of elephant molars have 

 occurred at Le Moustier and at Laugerie, accompanied at the 

 latter place by a piece of a pelvis. As regards the two 

 first species, MM. Christy and Lartet regard them as pro- 

 bably belonging to an earlier period than the human remains 

 found in the same caves. The presence of the pelvis has 

 been regarded as an evidence of the contemporaneity of the 

 mammoth with the reindeer hunters of Laugerie, and it is 



