AUR1GNAC. 321 



must have belonged to an individual recently killed, because, 

 after having been broken by man, they were gnawed by the 

 hyaenas, which would not have been the case if they had not 

 been fresh and still full of their natural juices. 



The elephant was represented only by some detached plates 

 of molars and a calcaneum. This latter was the only gnawed 

 bone found in the interior of the grotto. He is of opinion 

 that these plates were purposely separated, and the calcaneum 

 appears to have been placed in the vault at the time of the 

 last interments ; but there is no evidence that it was then in 

 a fresh condition. Indeed, the fact of its being gnawed seems 

 rather to point the other way. 



Eemains of the Ursus spelceus (cave-bear) were much more 

 abundant, and some of them were found in the grotto. In 

 one case a whole limb appears to have been buried with the 

 flesh on, as the different bones were all found together. It 

 is well known that food and drink were in ancient times fre- 

 quently buried with the dead, and M. Lartet thinks that we 

 may account in this manner for the bones of quadrupeds 

 found in the grotto at Aurignac. 



I have given the particulars of this case at length, because, 

 if the evidence was well established, we should here have an 

 instance of a sepulture belonging to the period at which the 

 cave-bear, the reindeer, the Irish elk, the woolly-haired rhino- 

 ceros, and probably the mammoth, still lived in the south of 

 France. It is, however, much to be regretted that M. Lartet 

 was not present when the place was first examined ; and, 

 under all the circumstances, we cannot, I think, feel satisfied 

 that the human remains found in this cave were coeval with 

 those of the extinct mammalia. 



Another remarkable case is that of the Hyaena-den at 

 Wokey Hole, near Wells, which has been ably explored and 

 described by Mr. Boyd Dawkins.* In this instance the cave 



* Geol. Journal, May, 1862, p. 115. 

 Y 



