CHAPTER IX. THE INHABITANTS OF THE CAVES OF NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE, AND THE EVIDENCE OF THE FAUNA AS TO THE ATLANTIC COASTLINE. The Caves of France, Baume, of Périgord.--Caves and Rock-shelters of Belgium, Trou de Naulette.--Caves of Switzerland.-- Cave-dwellers and Palæolithic Men of River-deposits.-- Classification of Palæolithic Caves.--Relation of Cave-dwellers to Eskimos.--Pleistocene animals living north of Alps and Pyrenees.--Relation of Cave to River-bed Fauna.--The Atlantic Coastline.--Distribution of Palæolithic Implements. _The Caves of France._ The caves of France have been proved, by the explorations carried on during the course of the present century, to contain the same animals, introduced under the same conditions as those which we have already described. Some species, however, have been met with which have not been discovered in this country. In the cave of Lunel-viel, for example, the common striped hyæna of Africa (_Hyæna striata_) has been found by Marcel de Serres, to whom belongs the credit of being the first systematic explorer of caverns in France. In that of Bruniquel, the ibex, now found only in the higher mountains in Europe, the chamois and the _Antelope saiga_, an animal inhabiting the plains of the region of the Volga and of southern Siberia, have been identified by Prof. Owen; while in the collection obtained by Mr. Moggridge from the caves of Mentone, Prof. Busk has recognized the marmot. With these exceptions there is no distinction between the faunas of the bone-caves of this country and of France.[219] _The Cave of Baume._ The _Machairodus latidens_,[220] or great sabre-toothed feline of Kent’s Hole, has been discovered in the cave of Baume in the Jura, according to M. Gervais,[221] along with the horse, ox, wild-boar, elephant, a non-tichorhine species of rhinoceros, the spotted hyæna, and the cave-bear, or the same group of animals as that with which it is found in Kent’s Hole. The cave is considered by M. Lartet[222] to be of preglacial age. _The Caves of Périgord._ The caves and rock-shelters of Périgord, explored by the late M. Lartet and our countryman, Mr. Christy,[223] 1863-4, have not only afforded cumulative proof of the co-existence of man with the extinct mammalia, but have given us a clue as to the race to which he belonged. They penetrate the sides of the valleys of the Dordogne and Vezère at various levels, as may be seen in Fig. 71, and are full of the remains left behind by their ancient inhabitants, which give as vivid a picture of the human life of the period, as that revealed of Italian manners in the first century by the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The old floors of human occupation consist of broken bones of animals killed in the chase, mingled with rude implements, weapons of bone, and unpolished stone, and charcoal and burnt stones which point out the position of the hearths.