Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/719

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N the southwest of France, at no great distance from the river Vézère, are situated the caves which were inhabited by a race of Troglodytes toward the close of the Quaternary geological period. The openings of these caves faced all points of the compass, except the north. They were inhabited throughout the entire year, as is shown by the remnants still found there of young reindeer, in every stage of development. From the teeth, bones, and budding horns of these animals, we can determine their age, and the season of the year when they were killed; and the evidence of this kind furnished us by the contents of the caves shows that the Troglodytes had a fixed abode; or, in other words, that they were not nomadic in their habits.



When the inhabitants of the caves went fishing or hunting, they closed up the door-ways to exclude beasts of prey. Only one bone has been found, and that at La Madelaine, which bears any tokens of having been gnawed by a wild beast. It shows the marks of a hyena's teeth, the animal having in some way gained admittance to the cave. Hyenas were scarce in the time of our Troglodytes, but wolves and foxes abounded; and we should find the marks of their teeth upon the bones strewed about in the caves, were it not that the inhabitants