Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/39

 cave was examined year after year by scientific committees. The findings were confirmed, and shown to be in place and so situated as to forbid the supposition of the human remains being of more recent origin than the accompanying deposits. Similar remains have been found in many caves in all countries, and now constitute



only one among several kinds of evidences of man's glacial and preglacial existence. A cave at Cravan, near Belfort, France, appears to have been extensively used as a prehistoric burial-place of the polished-stone period. It contained a number of skeletons in such positions as suggested deliberate arrangement, and with them were beautifully ornamented vases, polished-stone bracelets, and a mat of plaited rushes. The cave of Marsoulas, in the Haute-Garonne, France, was inhabited by man several times during the palæolithic age. The relics of what is designated as the second occupation are interesting on account of the specimens of artistic taste they afford. Besides the usual instruments of silex, arrow-points, and the like, were found some peroxide of manganese, which was probably used in tattooing, and engraved designs; a piece of bone adorned with a regular ornamentation, engravings very much like those found in the valley of La Vézère; and a piece of rib having an ovibos (or musk ox) carved upon it, in which, according to the Marquis de Nadaillac, the design is treated with exact knowledge of anatomical forms, the relief is brought out by shadings, and the drawing is vigorous. One of the recent excursions of the French Association for the Advancement of Science took in its way the grottoes of Lamouroux and Montrajoux, near Brive. The grottoes of Montrajoux are natural and have been used as the abodes of shepherds' families since the