1867.] ( 79 ) 



2. AKCHiEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



This Chronicle bears a heading new to the ' Quarterly Journal of 

 Science,' and it may therefore be as well to define at the outset the 

 subjects which we shall attempt to represent in it. Of late years 

 Archaeology has dived deeply into the records of our race, bringing 

 to the surface many facts and inferences, which throw light on the 

 most recent portions of Geological History. Ethnology also has 

 made rapid progress, and, from having been a mere catalogue of the 

 characters of the several varieties of one Natural History species, 

 has come to possess a wider scope and a higher aim. Archaeology 

 and Ethnology thus shade off, on the one hand, mto Geology and 

 Zoology, and on the other, into Modern History and Politics. It 

 is in their former relation only that we shall in this Chronicle 

 discuss their progress, as in this respect only do they concern the 

 student of Natural Science. 



"We cannot do better than begin our new Chronicle with an 

 account of the great work, entitled ' Beliquise Aquitanicse,' * 

 commenced by the late Mr. Henry Christy, F.B.S., and M. E. 

 Lartet, and continued by the latter with the assistance of some of 

 the best antiquaries, including Mr. John Evans, Mr. A. W. Franks, 

 and Mr. W. Tipping ; it is published at the expense of Mr. Christy's 

 executors, and is edited by Professor T. Eupert Jones. Three 

 parts have now appeared, illustrated by numerous plates and 

 woodcuts ; but there does not seem to be any systematic arrange- 

 ment, the different objects appearing to have been figured and 

 described as convenience, rather than a system, required. The 

 results, however, are sufficiently interesting now, and will probably 

 be made much more so by the inferences which will hereafter be 

 drawn from their consideration by the experienced savans concerned 

 in the publication of the work. 



In the Dordogne district the sides of the valley of the Vezere, 

 and of the gorges of its tributary streams, rise in great escarpments, 

 crowned with projecting cornices, below which are seen horizontal 

 niches or hollow flutings ; in these cliffs occur also numerous caves 

 and rock-shelters either at the level of the floods of the present day, 

 or higher up, thus showing that no alteration in the level of the 

 district has taken place since their formation. These cavities are 

 for the most part mere shelters, so we must suppose that when they 

 were inhabited by man, as they no doubt were at a remote period, 

 a protection was erected outside them, or that the people using 

 them were extremely uncivilized. Indeed it is evident that they 



* ' Keliquise Aquitanicse. Being Contributions to the Archeology and 

 Palaeontology of Pengord and the Adjoining Provinces of Southern France.' By 

 Edward Lartet and Henry Christy. London : Bailliere. 



