552 Notices respecting New Boohs. 



caves, however, belong to this era, as may be determined by the 

 nature of their contents. 



Even these great periods have their minor subdivisions. "With 

 the first and last we have nothing to do ; but the cave-dwellers of 

 this area have a somewhat definite boundary. They were Rein- 

 deer-hunters. This is the true basis on which the age of these 

 Troglodytes can be formed. In the " drift " the rough flint tools 

 are associated with the Mammoth and Rhinoceros, the Horse and 

 the Ox, but the Reindeer is rare. In some caves the Reindeer 

 bones predominate ; but the implements are chipped, not polished, 

 there are no traces of spinning or the use of vegetable fibre, and, 

 though the Horse and Aurochs remain, the Mammoth is becoming 

 rare. In the kitchen-middens of Denmark the Reindeer has disap- 

 peared, and the dog has become man's companion ; while in the Swiss 

 dwellings*, and later still in the Cromlechs, polished stone, spindle 

 whorls, and, finally, metal ornaments and weapons show the gra- 

 dual advance of art and civilization. 



And yet far back in time as these ancient hunters of Pe'rigord 

 must have lived, the ' Reliquiae Aquitanicse ' show most clearly that 

 they had attained a knowledge of art and even decoration of no 

 mean description, considering the primitive nature of the imple- 

 ments they had in use. Thus the deposits consisted of accumula- 

 tions of broken bones, pebbles from the neighbouring stream, 

 countless chips of flint, with the cores from which they were struck, 

 implements of bone and horn, arrow-heads and needles, all buried 

 in a debris mixed with charcoal to a depth of even 10 feet in some 

 cases, over an area 60 or 70 feet long. 



There are some slight differences in the nature of the deposits 

 in the various caves, though that is not in itself of necessity an 

 evidence of difference of age ; for that other animals than the Rein- 

 deer were coeval with it at the period of occupation of the Ve'zere 

 valley, is evidenced by the excellent sketches and sculptures from 

 the bones at Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, and La Madelaine, which 

 must have been drawn from an intimate knowledge of the animals 

 depicted. 



Thus, though the Reindeer, Horse, and Aurochs are the chief 

 sources of food-supply, there is less of the first-mentioned at 

 Laugerie Haute and Le Moustier cave ; and at the latter are bones 

 of the Eleplias jirimigeniiis, the Hyaena, and Felis spelcea. Still 

 the Troglodytes did not fare badly in quantity or quality ; for 

 bones of Ibex and Chamois, Birds and Salmon lie among the refuse 

 heaps ; and inasmuch as many of the smaller bones still remain 

 articulated, it is evident that there was not such lack of food as to 

 render close eating necessary. Nor were they ignorant of com- 

 merce, art, and decoration. Rock-crystal, which does not occur in 

 the neighbourhood, and fossil shells from the Faluns of Touraine, 

 one hundred miles away, indicate that they had some communica- 

 tion with the outer world ; and at Cro-Magnon the presence of sea 



* The Reindeer formerly existed in the neighbourhood; as the drawing 

 of a Reindeer from the Kesslerloch cave indicates. 



