Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/72

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PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

estimated the number of analogous stations, discovered and described in France up to date, at 118; but their number has considerably increased since then. In addition to the antiquarian results from these sheltered habitations must be reckoned the discoveries in the implement-bearing gravels, which are scattered so profusely throughout the alluvial deposits of the principal river basins in the middle and southern portions of France—Seine, Somme, Loire, Garonne, Adair and Rhone. The assortment of objects showing human workmanship, in the form of implements, weapons and ornaments, collected from these inhabited sites and alluvial deposits, now forms a remarkable feature of all the French archæological museums, especially the Museum of National Antiquities at Saint-Germain. In fact this splendid museum was virtually founded for the special purpose of giving accommodation to the relics pouring in from all quarters, as a consequence of the rise of the new science of anthropology and prehistoric archæology. When the great collections of the Old World civilizations, which now adorn the halls of the Louvre, Hôtel Cluny and the Palais des Thermes, were organized, prehistoric archæology was scarcely known, and so there was little space for this department in any of these museums. To remedy this defect the old Château of Saint-Germain was restored and fitted up as a special museum for the prehistoric antiquities of France.