The cave of Vallières (Loir-et-Cher), was worked, first by M. de
Vibraye, and subsequently by the Abbé Bourgeois. There was nothing
particular to be remarked.
The cave of La Chaise, near Vouthon (Charente), explored by MM.
Bourgeois and Delaunay, furnished bones of the cave-bear, the
rhinoceros, and the reindeer, flint blades and scrapers, a bodkin and a
kind of hook made of bone, an arrow-head in the shape of a willow-leaf
likewise of bone, a bone perforated so as to hang on a string, and, what
is more remarkable, two long rods of reindeer's horn, tapering at one
end and bevelled off at the other, on which figures of animals were
graven. These relics betray an artistic feeling of a decided character
as existing in the men, the traces of whom are found in this cave.
Among the caves in the south of France, we must specify those of
Périgord, those of Bas-Languedoc, and of the district of Foix
(department of Ariége).
The caves of Périgord have all been explored by MM. Lartet and Christy,
who have also given learned descriptions of them. We will mention the
caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ and _Moustier_, in the valley of the
Vézère, and that of _Pey de l'Azé_, all three situate in the department
of Dordogne (arrondissement of Sarlat).
The two caves of the _Gorge d'Enfer_ were, unfortunately, cleared out in
1793, in order to utilise the deposits of saltpetre which they contained
in the manufacture of gunpowder. They have, however, furnished flints
chipped into the shapes of scrapers, daggers, &c., a small pebble of
white quartz, hollowed out on one side, which had probably been used as
a mortar, and instruments of bone or reindeer's horn, three of which
showed numerous notches. Bones of the great bear clearly indicated the
age of these settlements.
The cave of Moustier, situated about 80 feet above the Vézère, is
celebrated for the great number and characteristic shapes of its stone
implements, which we have before spoken of. Hatchets of the
almond-shaped type, like those of the _diluvium_ of Abbeville and
Saint-Acheul, were very plentiful. Bi-convex spear-heads were also
found, of very careful workmanship, and instruments which might be held
in the hand, some of them of considerable dimensions; but no pieces of
bone or of reindeer's horn were discovered which had been adapted to any
purpose whatever. The bones were those of the great bear and cave-hyæna,
accompanied by separate _laminæ_ of molars of the mammoth, the use of
which it is impossible to explain. Similar fragments were met with in
some of the other Périgord settlements, and M. Lartet also found some at
Aurignac.
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