16 CUEIOUS HOMES AND THEIK TENANTS. 



houses imaginable, half burrows scraped among the 

 roots of trees and haK huts made of bark and decayed 

 wood." 



These habitations so much resemble the natural 

 formation of the ground about them that no one but 

 a native can discover them — even the more perma- 

 nent dwelling places of these people always occupy- 

 ing some out-of-the-way place where the surround- 

 ings harmonize as closely as possible with the shelter 

 that, rude as it is, answers all their needs. Yery many 

 centuries ago — just how long no one can now pretend 

 to say— all western Europe seems to have been in- 

 habited by races of savage men who lived in caves, 

 and are consequently called cave-dwellers. They 

 were very far behind the cliff-dwellers in civilization. 

 They could neither spin nor weave, make baskets or 

 pottery. They do not seem to have altered the shape 

 or proportion of the caverns in which they dwelt to 

 make them more comfortable, or even to have built 

 chimneys or made openings for the escape of the 

 smoke of their fires. The most we can credit them 

 with is a rough lean-to, as it is called, formed perhaps 

 of logs and bark propped up against the side of a rock 

 or bank. 



These ancient people are believed to have dressed 

 in the skins of beasts, and to have employed such 

 rude skill as they possessed in the formation of stone 

 spear and arrow heads, hatchets, flint knives, and the 

 like. Indeed, as far as ascertained, they appear to 

 have lived much as the native American Indians in 

 the northeastern part of the continent, by hunting. 



