feet from the surface, and was covered with bone-earth of that thickness.

At one point in the overlying stalagmite a perfect reindeer's horn was found sticking, and in another an entire humerus of the cave-bear-a convincing proof that both these animals must have lived after the flint tools were manufactured, or in other words that man in this district preceded the cavebear. A glance at the position of Windmill Hill, in which the caverns are situated, and a brief survey of the valleys which bound it on three sides, are enough to satisfy a geologist that the drainage and geographical features of this region have undergone great changes since the gravel and bone-earth were carried by streams into the subterranean cavities. Some worn pebbles of hematite, in particular, can only have come from their nearest parent rock at a period when the valleys immediately adjoining the caves were much shallower than they now are. The reddish loam in which the bones are embedded is such as may be seen on the surface of limestone in the neighbourhood, but the currents which were formerly charged with such mud must have run at a level seventy-eight feet above that of the stream now flowing in the same valley.'*

In 1861, Colonel Wood found, in a newly discovered cave of the peninsula of Gower, in Glamorganshire, the remains of two species of rhinoceros, R. teichorhinus and R. hemitochus, in an undisturbed deposit, in the lower part of which were some well-shaped flint knives, evidently of human workmanship. This is the first well-authenticated example of the occurrence of human implements in connexion with R. hemitochus-the first proof that this extinct brute, elsewhere the usual companion of the mammoth, has been coeval with man.

In 1852, on the side of a hill near the small town of Aurignac in the South of France, a sepulchral grotto was discovered which, though unadorned and rude, is of the highest interest, as in point of antiquity it surpasses all other burial-places known, and leads us back to times long anterior to the oldest traditions of our race. In that year a labourer observed that rabbits, when hotly pursued by the sportsman, ran into a hole Lyell, Antiquity of Man,' p. 101.

*

which they had burrowed in a talus of rubbish washed down from the hill above. Expecting no doubt to 'drag some struggling savage into day,' he reached as far into the opening as the length of his arm, and drew out, to his surprise, one of the long bones of a human skeleton. His curiosity being excited he then began to dig a trench through the middle of the talus, and in a few hours found himself opposite a large heavy slab of rock, placed vertically against the entrance. Having removed this, he discovered on the other side of it an arched cavity almost filled with bones, among which were two entire skulls, which he recognised at once as human.

The good people of Aurignac, highly interested in the discovery, flocked to the cave, and as they probably expressed a wish to see the bones of what they supposed to be their forefathers enjoy a Christian burial, the mayor ordered these human relics to be removed from the lonely spot in which they had so long reposed in peace, and to be re-interred in the parish cemetery. But before this was done having, as a medical man, a knowledge of anatomy, though, as it seems, a very imperfect idea of the ethnological value of the discovery--he ascertained that the bones must have formed parts of no less than seventeen skeletons of both sexes. Unfortunately, the skulls were injured in the transfer, and the interment was so negligently conducted that when, after the lapse of eight years, M. Lartet visited Aurignac, even the place could not be pointed out into which the skeletons had been thrown.

The eminent antiquary, however, resolved systematically to investigate the ground inside and outside the vault, and, having obtained the assistance of some intelligent workmen, made the following interesting discoveries, which amply rewarded him for his trouble. Outside the grotto, he found a layer of ashes and charcoal, about six inches thick, extending over an area of six or seven square yards, and going no further than the entrance of the cave, there being no cinders or charcoal in the interior. Among the ashes were fragments of sandstone, reddened by heat, which had once formed a hearth, not fewer than a hundred flint articles, and knives, projectiles, sling-stones, and chips. Here also lay scattered the bones of various animals, some belonging to species

extinct for thousands of years in France, such as the mammoth, the Siberian rhinoceros, the reindeer, and the gigantic Irish deer; and among these bones those which had contained marrow were invariably split open, as if for its extraction, many of them being also burnt. The spongy parts, moreover, were wanting, having been eaten off and gnawed after they were broken-the work, according to M. Lartet, of hyenas, whose bones and coprolites were mixed with the cinders and dispersed through the overlying soil. These beasts of prey are supposed to have prowled about the spot, and fed on such relics of the funeral feasts as remained after the retreat of the human visitors.

In the cave itself, along with some detached human bones which had escaped removal to the churchyard, were also found the bones of animals and some rude works of art, flat pieces of shell pierced through the middle as if for being strung into a bracelet, and the carved tusk of a young boar, perforated lengthwise as if for suspension as an ornament. The bones of animals inside the vault differed in a remarkable manner from those of the exterior, as none of them were broken, gnawed, half-eaten, or burnt, like those which were found lying among the ashes on the other side of the great slab which formed the portal. They seemed also to have been clothed with their flesh when buried in the layer of loose soil strewed over the floor, as they were often observed to be in juxtaposition, and in one spot all the bones of the leg of an Ursus spelaus were lying together uninjured. When we consider that it is still the custom of many savage tribes to bury with the bodies of the dead pieces of meat, such as the bear's fat haunch, so that they may not lack food on their long journey to the land of spirits, we gain a most interesting glimpse into the life of prehistoric man, the contemporary of the reindeer, the cave-bear, and the mammoth in the South of France. Armed with flint weapons, he had established his supremacy over the wild beasts of the forest. Rude and ferocious as no doubt he was, he carefully preserved the remains of his friends and kinsfolk, and performed funeral feasts before the vaults in which their bodies were interred.

The lower parts of the Valley of the Somme, far above Amiens and below Abbeville, as far as the sea, are covered

PEAT BEDS OF THE SOMME VALLEY.

231

with a bed of peat, in some places more than thirty feet thick. Near the surface of these moor grounds Gallo-Roman remains have been found, and, still deeper, Celtic weapons of the stone period; but the thickness of the superincumbent vegetable matter is far inferior to that of the underlying peat, so that many thousands of years must necessarily have passed since the first growth of that swampy vegetation. But, however remote its age, it is still of later date than the adjoining or underlying alluvial deposits of clay, gravel, and sand, which cannot originally have ended abruptly as they do now, but must have once been continuous further towards the centre of the valley. A long time must necessarily have elapsed between their deposition and subsequent denudation, and the first growth of the peat. In the lowest, and consequently oldest, of these beds, there has been found also a mixture of freshwater and marine shells, bones of the primitive elephant and teichorhine rhinoceros, and a number of flint implements shaped by the hands of man. Thus we have here convincing proofs that a race of savages inhabited the Valley of the Somme long before it was scooped out to its present depth, and when as yet not a trace existed of the thick bed of peat which now covers its lower grounds, and required so many thousand years for its formation.

Similar flint implements, in connexion with the bones of extinct animals, have been disinterred from ancient drift formations in many parts of England-in Surrey, Middlesex, Kent, Bedfordshire, and Suffolk. In the British Museum there is, among others, a flint spear-headed weapon which was found with an elephant's tooth near Gray's Inn Lane in 1715.

When, according to the old myth, Evander led Æneas over the site of future Rome, they saw the cattle grazing in what was to be the Forum, and heard them bellowing among the future dwellings of the rich senators and knights, - passimque armenta videbant

Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis.'

The change thus pointed out by Virgil was far less than that exemplified by these few relics of a time when possibly no intervening sea separated Britain from the rest of the world.

CHAPTER XXI.

TROGLODYTES OR CAVE-DWELLERS-CANNIBAL CAVES.

Cave Dwellings in the Val d'Ispica-The Sicanians-Cannibal Caves in South Africa The Rock City of the Themud-Legendary Tale of its Destruction.

CAVI

YAVES were probably the earliest habitations of primitive man, the first rude shelter for which he had to do battle with the hyena or the bear. As we have seen in the preceding chapter, some of the oldest relics of his prehistoric existence have been discovered in caves; and at a far later period, when he had already made some progress in the arts, we find many races still adhering to the subterranean dwellings of their forefathers. Such a state of things may possibly be indicated in the mythical stories of the Greek and Trojan heroes, who, near the base of Mount Etna, are said to have found caverns tenanted by the troglodytic tribe of the Cyclops.

In another part of Sicily the old cave-dwellings of the Val d'Ispica deservedly attract the antiquarian's attention. The vale is a narrow gorge, situated between Modica and Spaccafurno; and throughout its whole length of about eight Italian miles, the rock-walls on both sides are pierced with innumerable grottoes, which at first sight might be taken for the productions of nature, but on a closer inspection evidently show that they are the work of man, and have been originally excavated to serve as dwellings. The luxuriant vegetation of the Val forms a pleasing contrast with the naked sterility of the plain in which it is imbedded; a small rivulet flows along the bottom, and irrigates wild fig-trees and stately oleanders; on a higher level grow broad-leaved acanthuses and wild artichokes, while thick festoons of