248 CAVES IN THE DORDOGNE. 



and Christy, that some of them, at least, may not have 

 belonged to domesticated individuals. 



A glance at the collections made by MM. Christy and 

 Lartet, or that of M. le Vicomte de Lastic from Bruniquel, 

 will show that a very large proportion of the animal remains 

 consists of teeth, lower jaws, and horns. Other bones do 

 indeed occur, but they form a small fraction of the whole. 

 Yet we cannot attribute this to the presence of dogs, 

 partly because no remains of this species have yet been dis- " 

 covered, partly because the bones which remain have not 

 been gnawed, but principally because dogs eat only certain 

 bones and parts of bones, as a general rule selecting the 

 spongy portions, and rejecting the solid shafts. 



Mr. Galton has pointed out that some of the savage 

 tribes of Africa, not content with the flesh of the animals 

 which they kill, pound up also the bones in mortars, and 

 then suck out the animal juices contained in them. So also, 

 according to Leems, the Danish Laplanders used to break up 

 with a mallet all the bones which contained any fat or 

 marrow, and then boil them until all the fat was extracted.* 

 The Esquimaux also mash up the bones for the sake of the 

 marrow contained in them.f Some of the ancient stone 

 hammers and mortars were no doubt used for this purpose, 

 and the proportions of the different bones afford us, I 

 think, indirect evidence that a similar custom prevailed 

 among the ancient inhabitants of Southern France. 



Passing on now to the flint implements found in these 

 caves, we must first call attention to their marvellous 

 abundance. Without any exaggeration they may be said to 

 be innumerable. Of course this adds greatly to the value of 

 the conclusions, but it need not surprise us, because flint is 



* Account of Danish Lapland, by Leems, Copenhagen, 1767. Translated in 

 Pinkerton's Voyages, Vol. i., p. 396. 

 f Hall, Life with the Esquimaux, vol. ii. pp. 147, 176. 



