The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-08-19
PRE.nIsrORIc EvIpENCEs OF mAN.
singular Cave Re.eArches.

singular Cave Researches.
Some years ago, interesting discoveries Of
human remains were made in caves in the south
western part Of France, and the Britt sh Govern
ment has appropriated one thousand pounds 10
purchase one Of these caves, 70 be placed under
charge Of Professor Owen, on behalf OF the
British Museum. The Manchester Guardian
gives the following particulars about these caves
and their contents -
Tho locality of the caves is the department Of
Dordogne, IN the province of Perigord. Il Is
chiefly on the banks of tributaries of the riyaf
Dordogne (which reaches the sea a little north o
BordeauXl that the cayerns are found. In the
valley OF the Nezere one OF the principal VI these
tributaries, are several cayerns, one of which that
OF Eyzies, was bought last year by Messrs. Il.
Lartet and II. Christy, two eminent ReolOgistS
These gentlemen divided the floor Of the cave
into compartments, and, with generosity worthy
OF all praise, they have sent specimens Of the
bl'c thus obtained 10 the principal museums IN
Europe and elsewhere. In this way Mr.. Plant
received about a fortnight ago, for the Stafford
Royal Museum, slab weighing about five hun
dred weight IL was broken In the Journey into
two parts, each of which has been mounted under
Il glass shade The shaking Il had received or
the way rubbed off a quantity Of debris weighing
about twenty pounds, and this Mr.. Paut has
carefully washed and sifted and separated atom
from atom. His patience has been fully re-
warded, rs he has found articles sf the deepest
be we'll to say that by far the largest number
of bones found in the caYerns of PerigOrd are
those of the reindeer, An animal which has not
been known within the historic period south of
the northern shores Of the Baltic. Il Is impos-
tlble even 10 approximate 10 the antiquity
of an age so remote; but Sir Charles Lyell,
in bis Antiquity Of Man, estimates that the
Cavc-dwellers, tokens Of whose manners of life
we are about to describe, fourished not
less than from ten TO fifteen thousand years ago.
These tokens consist OF a compact mass Of earth,
charcoal, flint weapons and tools, bones needles.
&C., which have been hardened into q solid az.
glomcratc, chiefly by the action of the calcareous
droppings from the roof OF the cave. This az
gonerate, or breccia- as it Is technically styled,
has formed an artificial floor to the cave of vAi-
OTIS tlicknesses, from three inches b ten inches.
The practice OF the ancient inhabitants of throw
ing down the bones and other remnants of their
feasts upon the floor of che cave IN which they
continued 10 dwell, receives illustration from che
description given by the Danish missionary of tho
last century, Hans Bgede, Of the habits Of the
ESquimaux. He says their hutB were vcritabe
charnel-houses, beaped up with fat and tue raw
flesh OF mammals aud fish, which, together with
the remnants Of former ieasts, created a smell
which European could not endure, but which
did not incomm9de a native iu the least,
"At some period subsequent ~ the human oc-
cupancy of the cavern, flood has rushed through
1t, bringing in its course, and leaving Ia the cave
q number of boulder stones. These have been
fixed to the artificial floor Of bFcccia by the slow
but unfalling masOn-the droppings from the
chalk strata overhead"
The articles in the Stafford Museum include
flint knives bone needles, broken teeth, aud sim
liar objects. The conclusion deduced from the
exploration Of these caves h that human race in
hsbited the caves in the region since called Peri
CORD at the same time as the reindeer, the suroch,
and other animals which are now only found
in extreme latitudes; that this people had no
knowledge OF the use of metals, their only arms
and tools being either of broken and unpublished
fints, or Of bones or horns of animals that they
lived upon the pTodee Of tho chase and by fish.
ing; that they had no domesticated animal
neither deg nor cat, else some portions of the
homes and siIews that have been found would
have been eaten and some remains ofthe dog would
have been discovered; and that they were clothed
in skins, which were sewn with bone needles
and strings made ont of the sinew1 aud tendons
of the legs of their prey.