ments are of large size, and they are supposed by M.M. Christy and Lartet to have been used for cutting wood, and perhaps also the large bones of Mammalia.

Another very interesting type is figured below. This specimen is worked on both sides, but more frequently one of them is left flat. MM. Christy and Lartet regard this type as identical with the "lance-head" implements found in the drift.

We cannot altogether agree with them in this comparison. Not only are the Moustier specimens smaller, but the workmanship is different, being much less bold.

Moreover, the flat surface is no individual peculiarity. It is very frequently, not to say generally, present, and occurs also on the very similar implement found by Mr. Boyd Dawkins in the Hyæna den at Wokey Hole, and figured by him in the Geological Journal, May, 1862, No. 70, p. 119. This very interesting type seems rather to be derived from the "cutters" above described, in which case its resemblance to the drift forms would be accidental and insignificant. MM. Christy and Lartet indeed call this type "lanceheads," but we feel some doubt whether they were intended for use in this manner. There are, however, specimens at Moustier which have all the appearance of having been intended for this purOn the whole, then, although these Moustier types are of great interest, we must pause before we regard them as belonging to the drift forms.

No trace of a polished implement has yet been found in any of these caverns. Yet they are far from rare in this part of

France.

The collection made by M. Mourcin at Perigueux, alone contains, among 5025 objects of stone, no less than 3002 polished axes, of which, however, many are imperfect. Doubtless among the immense variety of forms presented by the flint implements from these caves, further study will distinguish other intentional types, and we may fairly hope that it will throw more light on the purposes for which they were designed.

The station at Moustier has not as yet produced any implements made of bone, but a good many have been obtained from the other caves. The greater number may be classed either as chisels, needles, or harpoons.

So far, then, with the exception perhaps of the well-worked lanceheads of Laugerie and Badegoule, all the evidence we have yet obtained from these caves, points to a very early period, earlier even than that of the earliest Swiss Lake villages, or Danish shell-mounds. No fragments of metal or of pottery have yet been found which can be referred with confidence to the Reindeer period.

But there is one class of objects in these caves which, taken alone, would have led us to a very different conclusion. No representation, however rude, of any animal or plant has yet been found in any of the Danish shell-mounds, or the Stone-age Lake-villages. Even on objects of the Bronze age, they are so rare, that it is doubtful whether a single well authenticated instance could be produced. Yet in these archaic bone-caves, several very fair sketches have been found, scratched on bone or stone with a sharp point, probably of a flint implement. In some cases there is even an attempt at shading. In the Annales des Sciences Naturelles,* M. Lartet has already described some rude drawings found in the Cave of Savigné, and in his last memoir he has made known to us some more objects of the same kind, which also he and Mr. Christy have had the kindness to show me. One of these represents a horned quadruped of uncertain species, and was found at Les Eyzies.

In the lower station at Laugerie several similar drawings have been found; one represents a large herbivorous animal, but unfortunately without the head or forelegs; a second also is apparently intended for some species of Ox; a third represents a smaller animal, 'th vertical horns; another is evidently intended for a horse; and fifth is very interesting, because, from the shape of the antlers and head, it decidedly resembles a Reindeer more than a common stag.

* Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1861. Vol. xv.

But perhaps the most remarkable specimen of all is a poniard, cut out of a Reindeer's horn. The artist has ingeniously adapted the position of the animal to the necessities of the case. The horns are thrown back on the neck, the forelegs are doubled up under the belly, and the hind-legs are stretched out along the blade. Unfortunately the poniard seems to have been thrown away before it was quite finished, but several of the details indicate that the animal was intended for a Reindeer.

Although it is natural to feel some surprise at finding these works of art, still there are instances among recent savages of a certain skill in drawing and sculpture, being accompanied by an entire ignorance of metallurgy. In considering the probable condition of these ancient Cave-men, we must give them full credit for their love of art, such as it was; while, on the other hand, the want of metal, of polished flint implements, and even apparently of pottery,* the ignorance of agriculture, and the absence of all domestic animals, including even the dog, certainly imply a very low state of civilization, and a very considerable antiquity.

Doubtless the persevering researches of my friends MM. Christy and Lartet will ere long throw more light on the subject, and enable us to speak with greater confidence; but so far as the present evidence is concerned, it appears to indicate a race of men living almost as some of the Esquimaux do now and the Laplanders did a few hundred years ago, and a period intermediate between those of the Polished Stone implements and of the great extinct Mammalia apparently also somewhat more ancient than that of the shell-mound builders of Denmark. But if these Cave-men shall eventually be shown to have been contemporaneous with the Cave Tiger, the Cave Bear, the Cave Hyena, and the Mammoth, remains of which have been found in doubtful association with them, then, indeed, they must be referred to an even more remote period.†

That some of the European caves were inhabited by man during the time of these extinct Mammalia seems to be well established.

Already in the year 1828 MM. Tournal and Christol, in the South of France, had found fragments of pottery and human bones

* Pottery is, however, very rare in the remains of the Irish Crannoges, and is not by any means abundant in the Danish shell-mounds.

+From another Bone Cave in the South of France--that of Bruniquel-M. le Vicomte de Lastic has made a large collection, the greater part of which is now in the British Museum. As Professor Owen has undertaken the description of this collection, I will say nothing about it here.

and teeth, intermingled with remains of extinct animals, and M. Tournal expressly pointed out that these had certainly not been washed in by any diluvial catastrophe, but must have been introduced gradually.

A few years later, in 1833 and 1834, Dr. Schmerling* published an account of his researches in some caves near Liége in Belgium. In four or five of these he found human bones, and in all of them rude implements, principally flint flakes, were discovered, scattered in such a manner among the remains of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros tichorinus, Cave Hyena, and Cave Bear, that Dr. Schmerling referred them to the same period. One feels a natural surprise that such animals as these should ever have been natives of England and France, ever have wandered about among our woods or along our streams; but when it was suggested that they were contemporaries with man, surprise was succeeded by incredulity. Yet these cave-researches appear to have been conducted with care, and the principal results have been confirmed by more recent discoveries.

The hesitation, however, with which the statements of Dr. Schmerling were received by scientific men arose no doubt partly from the fact that some of the fossil remains discovered by him were certainly referred to wrong species, and partly because, with reference to several of the extinct species, and especially to the Mammoth, he expressed the opinion that the remains had been brought from a distance, and had very likely been washed out of some earlier bed. "Nous n'hésitons point," he says, "à exprimer ici notre pensée, c'est que nous doutons fort que l'éléphant, lors de l'époque du remplissage de nos cavernes, habitât nos contrées. Au contraire, nous croyons plutôt que ces restes ont été amenés de loin, ou bien que ces débris ont été déplacés d'un terrain plus ancien et ont été entraînés dans les cavernes."

Even, therefore, though Dr. Schmerling might be quite right in his conclusion that the human remains had been "enfouis dans ces cavernes à la meme époque, et par consequent par les mêmes causes qui y ont entraîné une masse d'ossements de différentes espèces éteintes," still it would not necessarily follow that Man had lived at the same period as these extinct species.

In the year 1840 Mr. Godwin Austen communicated to the

Recherches sur les ossements fossiles découvertes dans les cavernes de la province de Liége. Par le Dr. P. C. Schmerling.

Geological Society a memoir on the Geology of the South East of Devonshire, and in his description of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, he says that "human remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of flint, occur in all parts of the cave and throughout the entire thickness of the clay: and no distinction founded on condition, distribution, or relative position, can be observed, whereby the human can be separated from the other reliquiæ," which included bones of the "elephant, rhinoceros, ox, deer, horse, bear, hyena, and a feline animal of large size."

The value, he truly adds, " of such a statement must rest on the care with which a collector may have explored; I must therefore state that my own researches were constantly conducted in parts of the cave which had never been disturbed, and in every instance the bones were procured from beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; so far, then, the bones and works of man must have been introduced into the cave before the flooring of stalagmite had been formed."

In May, 1858, Dr. Falconer called the attention of the Geological Society to a newly discovered cave at Brixham, near Torquay, and a committee was appointed to assist him in examining it. Grants of money were obtained for the same object from the Royal Society and Miss Burdett Coutts. In addition to Dr. Falconer, Mr. Pengelly, Mr. Prestwich, and Professor Ramsay were intrusted with the investigations. In September, 1858, a preliminary report was made to the Geological Society, but it is very much to be regretted that the results have not yet been published in extenso. There can however be no doubt that, from the care with which the observations were made, and the eminent authority upon which they rest, they have contributed great impulse to the study of prehistoric archæology.

The deposits in the cave were-in descending order—

1. Stalagmite of irregular thickness.

2. Ochreous cave earth with limestone breccia.

3. Ochreous cave earth with comminuted shale.

4. Rounded gravel.

The organic remains belonged to the following species:

1. Rhinoceros tichorinus. Teeth in considerable numbers and

an astragalus.

2. Bos sp. Teeth, jaws, and other bones.

Transactions of the Geol. Soc. Scr. 2, vol. 6, p. 433.