, 1876-12-01
A French Cave Man.

In the Museum of Toulouse, saws
Chambers Journal, may be seen a skull
OF man who dwelt ages ago in a cave
at Laugerie Basse, in the French Depart
ment of the Dordogne. Long ages be-
fore Troy was besieged or Jerusalem
built, this savage hunter drank of the
water of the little River Vezere. which
still tinkles past the cavern on its pas
sage to the blue, sunny Bay of Biscay
that dimples and flashes hard by.
He died in his sleep, and by an acci-
dent to which these savage masters, of
Europe seem to have been very liable.
As he lay, a limestone block from the
roof of the cave fell upon his neck and
chest, leaving the head uninjured. A
well-shaped, largely developed head
it was, more like, SO craniologists de-
clare, to Grecian skull than to that
of Carib or Mongol, the head of one
who could appreciate beauty, and was
not devoid of the artistic instinct. He
was indeed not merely mighty hunter,
used to grapple with brutes more terri
BILE than our continent can now show,
buta draughtsmam of no mean pre-
tensions, as we shall presently see.
The great cave near Langerie Basse,
behind the picturesque Gorge d'Enfer,
and called the Moustier from some fan
cied resemblance to a medieval minister
or church, was known to be rich in
animal remains. Bones and teeth once
belonging to the monstrous cave-bear,
the long haired cave-lion, the great tiger
in comparison with which the fercest
denizen of the Bengal jungle is but puny
thing and of the hyena, were dragged to
light along with the bones of horse and
OK, stag and reinLeer, the bison of the
North and the ibex of the hills. Quitere-
Gently, and after hard work with pick,
shovel and gunpowder, the way was
cleared to the spot where lay the buried
man of the cave himself.
He had lain down to rest, no doubt,
after the fashion of all barbarians, fully
dressed, but time had rotted away every
scrap of the bears fur and deerskin
that clothed him. His ornaments have
proved more durable, for his broad
collar and bracelets lay in fragments
around him when the searchers reached
his rocky couch. These were entirely
composed of fpreforated sea-shells of two
varieties of the genus Cypr@a, only
found in the Mediterranean, and un-
known in that stormy Atlantic which
foamed and rolled within league or SO
of the wild mans grave. Here was
fact, then, resting on indisputable evi-
dence; either by commerce or by mig
ration the hunters of Western Gaul could
procure the products of the far-of South
ern Sea.
These shells, faded with age and damp,
had once been of rare lustre and beau
ty. Each was somewhat larger than
pigeons egg, transparent as porcelain,
and while half of them were of a silvery
mouse-gray, the rest were of a Light
red color, so that the contrasted hues
must have produced an effect which
modern jewellers would not despise.
At some PAGES off, amidst the rubbish
which Uttered the uneven floor, were
picked up, first a sketch of a horses
head, scratched with flint or bone, on
the horn of o buck, then similar
sketches, of wild cat. of the antlered
head of q stag, and of a hare. Lastly
was found, executed with the rudest
tools, no doubt, and on part of the horn
of reindeer, a really admirable en-
craving which represented fawn in the
act of running. A similar sketch on
mammoth ivory and representing a
mammoth, had been found in a cave,
eight years earlier, in Auvergne.
The great preponderance of reindeer
bones in the Moustier proved that these
animals, now confined to Scandinavia
and Lapland, were the chief game pursu-
ed by the nomadic people who dwelt in
in caves, while the ornaments of snb-
tropic shells suggest winterly migra-
tion southwards to escape the severe
frosts which must have been general in
Gaul, country which could at best
have presented but softened prototype
of the Greenland of to-day.