Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1864-09-03
Pre- -historic Evidences of uan.

Ouue JeuTS dBO luteTeStiuS uioCOsctieo VI
human remains were made in caves n the
Southwestern part Of France, and the
British Parliament has appropriated Gl,
900 to purchase one Of these caves, to be
placed under charge Of Professor Owen on
behalf of the British Museum. T. The Man.
chester Guardian gives the following par.
ticulars about these caves and their con-
tents:
The locality Of the caves is in the depart
ment Of Dordogne, in The province OF Per
igod. II is chiefly on the banks of tribu
taries of The river Doldogue (Which reach
es the eea little norlh Of Bordeaux) that
the caverns are found. In the valley of
the Vezere, one of the principal Of these
tributaries, are, several caverns, one of
which, that of Eyzies, was bought last
year by Messrs. E Lartet and II. Christy,
two eminent geoogists These gentlemen
divided The floor Of the cave into compart.
mcnts, aud with generosity worthy Of all
praise, they have sent specimens of the
block thus obtained to the principal muse
ums in Europe and elsewhere. In this
way Mr., Plant received, about o fortnight
ago, for the Salford Royal Museum, slab
weighing about FIVE hundred weight. II
was broken in the journey into two parts,
each Of which has been mounted under o
glass shade. The shaking it has received
on the way rubbed off quantity of debris
weighing about twenty pounds and this
, Mr.. Plant has carefully washed and sfted.
and separated atom from atom. His pa
tieuce has been fully rewarded, as be has
found articles of the deepest interest. Be-
fore entering into the details it may be well
to say that by far the largest number of
bones found in the caverns of Perigord laue
those Of the, reindeer, an animal which has
not been known within the historic period
South OF the Northern shores of the Bal
tic. 1t is impossible ever to approximate
to the antiquity of an age so remote but
Sir Charles Lyell, in his Antiquity OF Man
estimates that the cave dwellers, tokens o.
of whose manners of life We are about te
describe, fourished not less than from ten
to fifteen thousand years ago. These to-
kens consist of compact mass OF earth
charcoal. flint weapons aud tools. bones
needles. ETC., which have been hardened
into solid agglomerate. chiefly by the &C
tion of the calcerous droppings from The
roof of the cave. This agglomerate. or
breccia, as it is technically styled, has
formed an artificial floor TO the cave of va
rious thicknesses, from three to ten inches
The practice of the ancient inhabitants of
throwing down the bones and other REM
nauts of their feasts upon the floor OF the
cave in which they continued to dwell, re.
ceives illustration from the description CIV
en by the Danish missionary of the last
century; Hans Egde, of the habits Of the
/ Esduihaux. +, He says their buts we're ver-
ilably charnelbouses. heaped up with fat,
which. together with the remains of for
met feasts, created smell which Euro
peaD could not endure, but which did not
incommode native in the least. t,.tt...f .f
At some period subsequent to the human
occupancy Of the cavern, a food had rush
ed through it, bringing inits course, aud
leaving in the cave, a number of boulder
enc. These have been fixed 10 the artificial
floor of breccia by the slow but unfailiDg
msson--,he drOppibgs from the chalk stra'
ta overhead. 10 sc di1ugl lHn T. lasd 1a3
The articles 10 the Stafford Museum 10,
elude flint knives, bone needles, broker
teeth. and similar objects. The conclusioI
dednced fromathe exploration Of these caye'
i is that human race inhabited them 10 thi
region since called Perigord at the SAM
time as the reindeer. dhe anrouch. aud ,th'
i other animals which are now only foaDd il
extreme lsiil ddes that this people had nt
knowledge Of the use Of metals. their onl.
arms aud tools being either Of broken aut
unpublished fiints, or OF homes and horns o
animals that they lived inpou the, produc
df the chase md by fishing ;)they had n
domsslicsted snimal, neither dog nor cal
! else some portions. Of the bones and sinev
that have been found would haye heenDes
ten, and some remains Of the dog woul
!, have been discovered I; and that they wer
/ clothed In skins, which were sewn wit
. hbooe needles and airing made ont ,oi gth
{ laiReFs and sendeps qfdbe Hgs Of theiy. .preJ
\ yrs ,laao.iJ Nts9i rFotS ERfsiag .Psssor