ife. What
concerns us most here is that the protection which the cave afforded
this primitive man has been a means of protecting the records of his
life, and thus added to the evidence of human progress. Many of these
{72} caves were of limestone with rough walls and floor, and in most
instances rifts in the roof allowed water to percolate and drop to the
floor.

Frequently the water was impregnated with limestone solution, which
became solidified as each drop left a deposit at the point of
departure. This formed rough stalactites, which might be called stone
icicles, because their formation was similar to the formation of an
icicle of the water dropping from the roof. So likewise on the floor
of the cave where the limestone solution dropped was built up from the
bottom a covering of limestone with inverted stone icicles called
stalagmites. Underneath the latter were found layer after layer of
relics from the habitation of man, encased in stone to be preserved
forever or until broken into by some outside pressure. Of course,
comparatively few of all the relics around these habitations were
preserved, because those outside of the stone encasement perished, as
did undoubtedly large masses of remains around the mouth of the cave.

In these caves of Europe are found the bones of man, flint implements,
ornaments of bone with carvings, and the necklaces of animals' teeth,
along with the bones of extinct animals. In general the evidence shows
the habits of the life of man and also the kind of animals with which
he associated whose period of life was determined by other evidence.
Besides this general evidence, there was a special determination of the
progress of man, because the relics were in layers extending over a
long period of years, giving evidence that from time to time implements
of higher order were used, either showing progress or that different
races may have occupied the cave at different times and left evidences
of their industrial, economic, and social life. In some of the caves
skulls have been discovered showing a brain case of an average
capacity, along with others of inferior size. Probably the greater
part of this cave life was in the upper part of the Paleolithic Stone
Age.

In some of these caves at the time of the Magdalenian {73} culture,
which was a branch of the Cro-Magnon culture, there are to be found
drawings and paintings of the horse, the cave bear, the mammoth, the
bison, and many oth