LAETET ON HUMAN EEMAINS. 71 



In the valley of the G-aronne, the Pyrenean drift is the geological 

 or synchronal equivalent of the diluvium, of the Seine and of the 

 diluvial deposits of Amiens, Abbeville, &c., because it is in these 

 alluvial beds, that are found the remains of Eleplias primigenius, Bliino- 

 ceros tichorinus, and other species regarded as characteristic of the 

 diluvimn. 



But tliis phenomenon of torrential recrudescence, which has pro- 

 duced the diluvium, and whose cause must be sought in a sudden 

 return to regional conditions of extreme temperature, has been 

 manifested, only to a comparatively very trifling extent, in all the 

 valleys descending from the plateau of Lanemezan. It is not astonish- 

 ing therefore, to find that the sepulchre of Aurignac, if it existed at that 

 time, should not have suifered any damage from the efiect of the 

 great floods of the period, seeing that, from its com^jarative altitude, 

 it was placed beyond their reach. 



I would, nevertheless, go farther, and say that viewed simply 

 under the palseontological relations manifested in it, the sepulchre 

 of Aurignac claims a very high comparative antiquity. In fact, the 

 Great Cave Bear, which we there behold evidently cotemporary with 

 man, has not, so far as I know, yet been found in France in the 

 diluvium. It is true, that it has been mentioned in a list which has 

 several times been reproduced, of the fossil Mammals discovered in the 

 diluvial beds of Abbeville ; but I have in vain tried to get at the source 

 of the methodical determination upon which this statement rests, and 

 from all that I have seen of its fossil remains the Bear, either from 

 the valley of the Somme, or from the environs of Paris, belongs 

 to a species, or to more than one species, very certainly distinct from 

 Ursus spelijeus. In the centre of Prance, and in England, all the 

 'remains of the latter species, not foimd in caverns, come from 

 deposits, regarded by geologists as more ancient than the diluvium. 



It will, doubtless, be objected to this, that the remains of Ursus 

 spelcBus occur very abundantly in most of the caverns of the con- 

 tinent, and even in some of those in England ; but, at the same time, 

 it must not be forgotten that the date of the filling of these caverns 

 is evidently to be placed beyond the epoch assigned by geologists to 

 the diluvial phenomena, because in several of these caverns, at any 

 rate, the remains of Mammals are met with, which are sometimes 

 included in the lists of species referred to the latter phases of the 

 tertiary period. 



We see then, that if we rely solely upon the consideration of the 

 palseontological concomitances, the result we should arrive at would 

 be, that the sepulchre of Aurignac should be referred, together with 

 all the circumstances accompanying it, to an epoch anterior to the 

 diluvium properly so termed. In confining the force of this remark 

 simply within the limits of its inductive value, I do not think I am 

 losing sight of the reserve with which new propositions should be 

 introduced, when they as yet repose only on negative observations. 



