Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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238 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL some sheltering cliff, all traces of the spot and its relics would be lost. Hence, we may properly take for granted that hundreds of archpeological stations will remain undisco^'ered, in consequence of which our notion of the actual strength of the population at any given place during these early millenniums of human existence must continue imperfect, if not inadequate. As need hardly be stated the presence of natural habitations depends ordinarily on a high relief or a more or less moun- tainous topography. Caves are most abundant in volcanic regions as in the western United States or in limestone areas such as Kentucky and adjacent commonwealths. Shelters are notable features of steep-walled valleys or box- canons and our own cliff-dweller region affords the best example of them and their utilization. In P^urope the most famous cave groups are located in the lower French Pyrenees and their Canta- brian extension in northern Spain, while the equally famous shelter region in- cludes short sections of the \ ezere and Beune Valleys at Les Eyzies, in the French department of Dordogne. Both regions are wonderfully picturesque and impressive and barring some alterations in the flora they have not changed much in general appearance since the arrival of palaeolithic man. These caves and shelters are all in limestone formations and are the results chiefly of mechanical erosion. Some of the caves, especially those of the lower altitudes, are still in process of making, while others, well up on the mountain sides, are very ancient — in fact, were in their old age when man first entered them. Roughly speaking, the shelters proper, that is the overhanging cliffs and the wide open grottos, were the homes of paliieolithic man and therefore naturally furnish us with important data concern- ing his physical make-up, his practical
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The Vezere River, its floodplain and cliff wall as seen from the entrance to the Gorge d'Enfer, above Les Eyzies, France. The station of La Micoque is on the extreme right, Laugerie Haute at the foot of the distant cliff and Laugerie Basse nearer by off the first bend in the stream

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