Other Contemporaries of Man and the Reindeer at Mentone ¹

Abstract

IN NATURE, October io, 1907, appeared a notice of the stratigraphical and anthropological results obtained from the examination of the Baousse-Raousse caves at Mentone. In the work at present under review we obtain the no less important geological and palseontological results. It may be said at the outset that this subsequent volume is in every sense a worthy companion to the preceding volumes, which fulfilled in an exemplary manner the many tedious requirements which modern archaeology exacts from those who undertake the investigation and description of these valuable and irreplaceable records of the past, Not the least part of the debt which archaeologists owe to MM. Boule, Verneau, and de Villeneuve is due to the admirable methods which they have instituted. The volume at present under review contains a full account of the various animal bones recovered from these caves. The bones of each animal are first carefully considered, and so far as is possible a general idea is obtained of the animal as it is represented in the deposits within these caves. The information thus obtained is next checked, confirmed, and extended by comparing the Baousse-Raousse specimens with those contained in the various museums of Europe. A no less interesting comparison is then instituted between these extinct forms and the forms living at the present day. Attention is next directed to the exact stratigraphical position in which the bones were discovered, and from this evidence the order of arrival of the Pleistocene mammals in the Mentone district is deduced. Not content with this, M. Boule furnishes us with a series of most useful maps of Europe and the adjoining parts of Asia and Africa showing the areas from which the remains of some of the larger and more important animals have been reported. The methods employed will thus be seen to be as perfect and exhaustive as they were no doubt laborious. Measurements of bones are almost entirely eschewed, M. Boule believing, with many others, that measurements arbitrarily chosen are in, no way superior to simple observation, nor are they likely in his opinion to disclose such specific characters as would be likely to be hidden from the trained and experienced eye. Instead of long lists of measurements of dubious value, the text is enriched with a large number of admirable photographs, which in some respects possess an advantage over the actual specimens themselves.