The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-11-09
A French Cave Man.

In the Musetim of Toulouse, says Cham
bers's journal, M ay be seen the skull of 8
man who dwelt ages ago in a cave al
Langerie 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 Bisoay
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, limestone block from the
roof of the cave fell upon his neck and
chest, leaving the head uninjured. A
well-shaped, largely developed head il
was, more like, so craniOlegists declare,
to Grecian skull than to that of Carib
or Mongul, the head of one who could
appreciate beauty and was not devoid OF
the artistic instinct. He was indeed not
merely a mighty hunter, used to crap.
pie with brutes more terrible than our
continent can now show, but draughts-
man of no mean pretensions, 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 some medieval min
ster or church, was known to be rich in
animal remains. Bones and teeth once
belonging to the monstrOus cave-bear,
the lopg-haired cave-lion, the great tiger,
in omparison with which the fercest
denizen of the Bengal Jungle is but a
puny thing, and of the hyena, were
dragged to light, along with the bones
Of horse and OK, stag and reindeer, the
bison of the north and the ibex of the
hills. Quite recently, and after hare
work with the pick, shovel, and gunpow-
der, 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 col
lar and bracelets lay in fragments around
rocky couch. These were entirely COM
posed of perforated sea-shells of two va
rieties of the genus Cyprea, only found
in the Mediterranean, and quite unknown
in that stormy Atlantic which foamed
and rolled within q league or so of the
wild mans grave. Here was fact, then,
resting on indisputable evidence; either
by commerce or by migration the hunters
of western Gaul could procure the pro-
ducts of the far-of southern sea.
These shells, faded with age and damp,
had once been of rare luster and beauty.
Each was somewhat larger than pigeon g
egg, transparent as porcelain, and while
half them were of silvery mouse.gray,
the rest were of light red color; SO that
the, contracted 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 the sketch of
a horses head, scratched with flint or
bone, on the horn of buck, then SINH
lar sketches, of wild cat, of the antlered
head of stag, and of hare. Lastly
was found, executed with the rudest
tools, no doubt, and on part CT the horn
of reindeer, really admirable en-
craving which represents fawn in the
act of running. A similar sketch on
mammoth ivory, and representing a
mammoth, had been found in 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 pur-
sued by the nomadic people who dwelt
in caves, while the ornaments of sub
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 buta softened prototype of the
Greenland of to-day.