118 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
fauna were the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear and musk- 
ox. The special features of the industrial remains of this period 
were the scarcity of the coup de poing, which is so character- 
istic of the older river-drift deposits, and the splitting up of 
flints into smaller implements, such as scrapers, trimmed flakes, 
etc. The next station in ascending order was the open-air encamp- 
ment of Solutre (Saone-et-Loire). The stage of civilisation here 
disclosed was characterised by great perfection in the art of 
manufacturing flint implements, especially spear and lance-heads, 
in the form of a laurel leaf (Plate II. No. 12), and by the abundance 
of horses and reindeer, which were used by the inhabitants as 
food. The climate was mild and dry, the great glaciers were on 
the wane, and the rhinoceros seems to have disappeared from the 
scene. The third and last of the typical stations was the well- 
known rock-shelter of La Madelaine (Dordogne), characterised by 
the abundance of objects made of bone and horn, the development 
of a remarkable artistic talent, the predominance of a northern 
climate and fauna, and the extinction of the mammoth towards the 
close of the period. 
With regard to the ethnological characteristics of these people 
little information is to be gained from their artistic productions, as 
the few engravings and sculptures of the human form hitherto 
discovered are too rude or fragmentary to be of much value in this 
respect. That these artist-hunters should have displayed less 
aptitude in the delineation of their own form and features than of 
those of the animals hunted, shows how restricted was their con- 
ception of human life and of the dignity of man. Evidently the 
cult of humanity was still in the womb of futurity, and the 
struggle of life alone was uppermost in their minds. It may be 
stated, however, that, so far as this line of research leads us, these 
anthropoid figures represent both sexes as nude and covered with 
hair, some of them also being, from our point of view, indecent. 
On the other hand, there can be no doubt, judging from the 
number of bone needles and pins collected on their inhabited sites, 
that they wore clothing probably made of skins. Indeed, it 
would be impossible for human beings who had their origin in a 
warmer climate to endure with impunity the inclemency of the 
sub-arctic climate which then obtained in Central Europe without 
