Trou de Naulette.
The human remains consisting of a lower jaw, ulna and metatarsal, discovered in the large cavern of Naulette,[228] on the left bank of the Lesse, in association with the broken remains of the rhinoceros, mammoth, reindeer, chamois, and marmot, are undoubtedly of palæolithic age, since they rested in an undisturbed stratum. M. Dupont gives the following section in descending order.
| METRES. | ||
| 1. | Sandy grey and yellow clay | 2·90 |
| 2. | Yellow grey clay with stones and bones of ruminants | 0·45 |
| 3. | Stalagmite. | |
| 4. | Tufa. | |
| 5. | Three bands of clay alternating with stalagmite. | |
| 6. | Sandy clay with human bones at the depth of four metres. | |
| 7. | Stalagmite. | |
| 8. | Cave-earth with bones gnawed by hyænas. |
The human jaw is remarkable for its prognathism, which, according to Dr. Hamy, is greater than that which has been observed in any living races. The cave had afforded shelter to the hyænas before it had been used by man.
The Caves of Switzerland.
The caves of Switzerland also contain the same class of rude implements and carvings. Prof. Rupert Jones has called my attention to a recent discovery of carved reindeer antlers, and harpoon-heads, similar to those figured from the Dordogne, in a cave in the Canton of Schaaffhausen,[229] along with the bones of hyæna, reindeer, and mammoth. In that of Veyrier,[230] carved implements were found along with the remains of the ox, horse, chamois, and ibex, some of which, shown to me by Dr. Gosse, at the meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, at Lyons in 1873, are of the same form and size as the arrow-straightener from the cave of Goyet ([Fig. 121]).
We may, therefore, infer that the same palæolithic race of men once ranged over the whole region from the Pyrenees and Switzerland, as far to the north as Belgium. And since Prof. Fraas has obtained similar implements from a refuse-heap at Schussenreid in Würtemberg, they wandered as far to the east as that district, while the discoveries in Kent’s Hole and Wookey Hole prove that they extended as far to the west as Somersetshire and Devonshire.
Cave-dwellers and Palæolithic Men of the River-gravels.
These palæolithic cave-dwellers are considered by Mr. Evans[231] to belong to the same race as those who have left their rude flint implements in the river-gravels in the valleys of the Thames, the Somme, the Seine, and in the eastern counties, as far to the north as Peterborough. We must, however, allow that a marked difference is to be observed between a series of flint implements found in the caves, as compared with a series found in the river-strata, although some forms are common to the two; as for instance some of those found in Brixham and Kent’s Hole. This difference can scarcely be explained on the supposition that the small things would be less likely to be preserved in the fluviatile deposits, because it leaves the rarity in the caves of the larger fluviatile forms unaccounted for. It is perhaps safer, in the present state of our knowledge, to consider the two sets to be distinct from each other. The direct superposition in Kent’s Hole of the stratum with the ordinary cave-type of implement, over that with the ordinary fluviatile type, may perhaps prove that the latter is the older.