Elsewhere, the race is by no means extinct. In France more people live underground than most suppose. And they show no inclination to leave their dwellings. Just one month ago from the date of writing this page, I sketched the new front that a man had erected to his paternal cave at Villiers in Loir et Cher. The habitation was wholly subterranean, but then it consisted of one room alone. The freshly completed face was cut in freestone, with door and window, and above were sculptured the aces of hearts, spades, and diamonds, an anchor, a cogwheel and a fish. Separated from this mansion was a second, divided from it by a buttress of untrimmed rock, and this other also was newly fronted, occupied by a neat and pleasant-spoken woman who was vastly proud of her cavern residence. "Mais c'est tout ce qu'on peut désirer. Enfin on s'y trouve très bien." CONTENTS CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC CAVE-DWELLERS Formation of chalk--Of dolomitic limestone--Where did the first men live--Their Eden in the chalk lands--Migration elsewhere--Pit dwellings--Civilisation stationary--Troglodytes--Antiquity of man--Les Eyzies--Hôtel du Paradis--The first colonists of the Vézère Valley-- Their artistic accomplishments--Painting and sculpture--Rock dwellings in Champagne--Of a later period--Civilisation does not progress uniformly--The earth--Book of the Revelation of the past--La Laugerie Basse--Blandas--Conduché--Grotte de Han--The race of Troglodytes not extinct CHAPTER II MODERN TROGLODYTES Troglodytes of the Etang de Berre--The underground town of Og, King of Bashan--Trôo--Sanitation--Ancient mode of disposing of refuse--The talking well--Les Roches--Chateau de Bandan--Chapel of S. Gervais--La Grotte des Vierges--Rochambeau--Le Roi des Halles--La Roche Corbon-- Human refuse at Ezy--Saumur--Are there still pagans among them?-- Bourré--Courtineau--The basket-makers of Villaines--Grioteaux--Sauliac --Cuzorn--Brantôme--La Roche Beaucourt--The Swabian Alb--Sibyllen loch-- Vrena Beutlers Höhle--Schillingsloch--Schlössberg Höhle--Rock village in Sicily--In the Crimea--In Egypt--In volcanic breccia--Balmes de Montbrun--Grottoes de Boissière--Grottoes de Jonas--The rock Ceyssac-- The sandstone cave-dwellings of Corrèze--Their internal arrangement-- Cluseaux--Cave-dwellings in England--In Nottinghamshire--In Staffordshire--In Cornwall--In Scotland--The savage in man--Reversion to savagery--The Gubbins--A stone-cutter--Daniel Gumb--A gentleman of Sens--Toller of Clun Downs CHAPTER III SOUTERRAINS