At La Laugerie Basse, on the right bank of the Vezere, is a vast
accumulation of fallen rocks, encumbering the ground for at least
thirty-five feet in height under the overhanging cornice. The fallen
matter consists of the disintegration of the projecting lip. Against
the cliff, under the shelter of the rock, as already said, are cottages
with lean-to roofs, internally with the back and with at least half the
ceiling composed of the rock. In one of these Lartet and Christy began
to sink a pit, beside the owner's bed, and the work was carried on to
conclusion by the late Dr. Massenat. The well was driven down through
successive stages of Man; deposits from the sous dropped and trampled
into the earth floor by the children of the cottagers till the virgin
soil was reached; and there, lying on his side, with his hands to his
head for protection, and with a block of fallen rock crushing his
thigh, lay the first prehistoric occupant of this shelter.

On the Causse de Larzac is Navacelles, in Gard; you walk over the arid
plain with nothing in sight; and all at once are brought to a
standstill. You find yourself at the edge of a crater 965 feet deep,
the sides in most places precipitous, and the bottom is reached only by
a zig-zag path. In the face of one of the cliffs is the grotto of
Blandas, that has been occupied since remote ages. A methodical
exploration has revealed a spearhead of silex, a bronze axe, bone
bracelets, a coin of the Hundred Years' War, and lastly a little pin-
cushion of cloth in the shape of a heart, ornamented with metal
crosses, the relic of some refugee in the Reign of Terror, hiding to
escape the guillotine.

At Conduche, where the Cele slides into the Lot, high up in the yellow
and grey limestone precipice is a cave, now accessible only by a
ladder. Hither ascended a _cantonnier_ when the new road was made