VI. The Belgian troglodytes were, from many points of view, far behind those of Périgord and Mâconnais. The monuments of their industry are much inferior to all that we have seen amongst their predecessors, and they show no indication of the artistic aptitudes so remarkable in the man of the Vézère. They surpass him however, in one essential point; they had invented, or received from elsewhere, the art of manufacturing a rude kind of pottery, of which M. Dupont has found the remains in all the stations which he has explored, and obtained in the _Trou du Frontal_ fragments in sufficient number to restore the vase of which they had once formed part. This, and some other facts, which it would take too long to discuss here, have led some of the most competent _savants_, amongst others MM. Cartailhac and Cazalis de Fondouce, to regard the Trou du Frontal and the other contemporary stations as belonging to the neolithic stone period, and not to the quaternary epoch. But the character of the fauna discovered in the grottoes of Chaleux and Furfooz makes it impossible in our opinion to accept this opinion, which rests chiefly upon archæological considerations. To refer the age of polished stone to an epoch when the chamois, bouquetin, and Saïga antelope lived in Belgium with the Norwegian rat and the ptarmigan, would be making it very distant. This question may perhaps call for further study; but the juxtaposition of these species in the neighbourhood of Dinant is, in our opinion, a proof that the quaternary period had not then drawn to a close. VII. The troglodytes of Belgium painted the face and perhaps the body, like those of Périgord. The ornaments in use at Chaleux and Furfooz were almost the same as those which we have found in the south of France. We never, however, find amongst them any object borrowed from marine fauna. This is a curious fact, as the man of the Lesse journeyed in search of his _jewels_, as well as of the rough material for his implements and arms much greater distances than that which separated him from the sea. In fact, the principal ornaments of the men of the Lesse were fossil shells. Some, it is true, were obtained from the Devonian rocks in their vicinity; but the greater part came from a considerable distance, chiefly from Champagne and from Grignon near Versailles. The flints, which our troglodytes used in such great numbers, were obtained, not from Hainault or the province of Liège, but almost entirely from Champagne. There are some even which could only have been collected in Touraine, on the banks of the Loire. Judging from the localities of these different objects, we might conclude that the known world of the troglodytes of the Lesse scarcely extended in a northerly direction for 13 to 25 miles, whilst to the south it stretched to a distance of 250 to 300 miles.