1872.] DAWKINS CLASSIFICATION OF PIEISIOCENE STRATA. 421 



Dr. Hamy* practically admits this to be the ease when he foUows 

 Sir John Lubbock in classifying the caverns and river-deposits by 

 the presence of the Cave-bear and Mammoth on the one hand, and 

 of the Reindeer on the other, and by accommodating the theory to the 

 facts by a series of transitions. But even his modification of M. 

 Lartet's views does not explain the facts ; for the " Station of Mous- 

 tier," which he takes as the type of the series belonging to the age 

 of the Mammoth, furnishes remains of the Reindeer, and those of 

 Laugerie Haute and Laugerie Basse, which he refers to the age of 

 the Reindeer, contain the Mammoth. 



M. Dupont'sf division of the caves of Belgium into the ages of the 

 Mammoth and the Reindeer is equally unsatisfactory. In the 

 Trou de Sureau, for instance, which he assigns to the former age, one 

 Mammoth and many Reindeer were found ; and in the other caves, 

 which he assigns to the same date, more individuals were discovered 

 of the Reindeer than of the Mammoth. In the Trou de Chaleux, 

 which is referred to the later age, the Mammoth is found as well as 

 the Reindeer. 



Our present imperfect knowledge renders it impossible to subdivide 

 the latest stage of the Pleistocene by means of the Mammalia, although 

 the archceologists may be able to establish a rude sequence based on 

 a comparison of the implements and weapons found in caves and the 

 deposits of rivers. This principle of classification by the relative 

 rudeness of such remains presupposes that the progress of man had 

 been gradual, and that the rudest implements and weapons are the 

 oldest. The difference, however, may have been due to different 

 tribes or families having lived at the same time without intercourse 

 with each other, as is now generally the case with savage communities, 

 or to the supply of flint and chert for cutting-instruments being- 

 greater in one region than in another. 



8. Range of Late Pleistocene Mammalia on the Continent. 



The latest of the three divisions of the British Pleistocene fauna is 

 widely spread throughout France and Germany and Central Russia. 

 In the former country it has been proved by MM. Marcel de Serres, 

 Lartet, Gaudry, GervaisJ, and others to have ranged from the English 

 Channel to the shores of the Mediterranean, the only remains wMch 

 have not been discovered in Britain being the Marmot, Chamois, 

 Ibex, Antilojoe saiga, and striped Hyaena. In the following Table 

 I have selected a few typical cases to show how the animals 

 are associated together in various parts of Prance, Belgium, and 

 Germany ; and I have added those which have been discovered in 



* Precis de Paleontologie Humaine, par le docteur Gr. T. Hamy, 8vo, Paris, 

 1870. Tableau I. 



f Les temps Antehistoriques en Belgique. L'Homme pendant les ages de la 

 pierre. Par M. E. Dupont, 8vo, Bruxelles, 1871. 



J M. de Serres, ' Les Oss. Foss. des Cavernes de Lunel Viel,' 4to. M. Lartet, 

 op. cit. and 'La Seine,' par M. Belgrand, t. ii.4to, 1871. M. Gaiidi'y, a letter to 

 the author ; see also " Materiaux pour THistoire de I'Homme." M. Gervais, Zool. 

 & Paleont. Fran9aises, 2nd edit., 4to, 1859 ; Nouvelles Kecherches sur les ani- 

 maux vertebres, 4to, 1867-69. 



