21 
Society of the West Eiding of Yorkshire, and published in their 
Proceedings.) 
May 3.— Mr. W. S. Dallas, F.L. S., read a paper “On Traces 
of Primaeval Man in the South of France.” After referring to the 
various recent discoveries which have led to a very general belief that 
man existed in Europe, and probably elsewhere, contemporaneously 
with many animals which have always been supposed to have been 
extinct long before the appearance of human inhabitants, Mr. Dallas 
proceeded to give an account of some of the more interesting results 
obtained by MM. Lartet and Christy by the exploration of certain 
caverns in the old Province of Perigord. In these caverns flint 
implements were found, intermixed with bones of extinct animals, 
under circumstances which indicate that they hadbeen simultaneously 
deposited. The most interesting of the deposits was in the grotto 
of Les Eyzies, the floor of which was covered with a layer of osseous 
breccia, varying in thickness from four to ten inches. Many 
implements were found in this, and in some places the presence of 
ashes and fragments of charcoal indicated the spot where the 
primaeval inhabitants were in the habit of making their flres. The 
long bones of the herbivorous animals were either broken or split 
for the extraction of their marrow. Amongst these bones those of 
the Peindeer greatly predominated, indicating that the cavern had 
been at one time inhabited by a people who supported themselves 
chiefly by the chase of that animal. Many weapons and implements 
formed of the horn of the Eeindeer were also met with, including 
fine needles, and a peculiar kind of whistle made by perforating 
the first toe-bone of the Eeindeer. In the same district deposits 
are found resting against the great escarpments of the Cretaceous 
rocks, and in these are numerous relics of the early inhabitants, 
such as worked flints, broken bones of various animals, and many 
objects fashioned out of bones and horns, especially those of the 
Eeindeer. At a place called Laugerie-Haute there are traces of a 
manufactory of flint implements; and at Laugerie-Basse similar 
indications occur of an establishment for working in Eeindeer horns. 
Many of the implements found at the latter place exhibit traces of 
great artistic taste and skill, and several of the carvings are very 
spirited representations of animals. These facts, with others 
recorded by MM. Lartet and Christy, seem to indicate the former 
existence in the South of France of a tribe of people largely 
dependent on the Eeindeer for the means of living, and probably 
