Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/184

128 retreats, carefully explored by MM. H. Christy and E. Lartet, have of late years yielded up the secrets of their primitive industry and of their savage life. Little, however, has hitherto been determined as to their ethnic characters —and that only from unsatisfactory specimens, found in possibly abnormal positions. It was therefore with lively curiosity that, towards the end of last March (1868) we were made acquainted with the discovery of some human skeletons in this district, under conditions which cannot fail to prove their high antiquity." (Reliquiæ Aquitaniæ p. 62.)

CARTE DES EYZIES et des environs

P.128-fig.31-Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.jpg

FIG. 31. From Guide Illustré, by M. Peyrony.

The Cro-Magnon Skeletons.

The cave, formed by a ledge projecting from a great rock, occupied a space of some 17 metres in length by 8 metres in depth, at a distance of about 130 metres from the railway station of Les Eyzies. At the base of the rock there is a talus, of which a portion was removed in 1868 for the construction of the railway embankment. During these operations