LAETET ON HUMAN BEMAINS. 55 



tlie traces of which they had concealed by depositing the bodies of 

 theii' victims in this cavity, whose existence was known only to 

 themselves. 



In order to put a stop to all these conjectures, Dr. Amiel, at that 

 time Mayor of Aurignac, caused all the human remains to be col- 

 lected, and re-interred in the parish burial-ground. But previous to 

 this translation of the relics, he ascertained, to his own satisfaction, 

 by counting the number of certain homologous portions of the 

 skeletons, that they must have belonged to 17 individuals. Some 

 of the characteristic forms found among them appeared to him refer- 

 rible to females ; whilst other portions, from their incomplete ossilica-^ 

 tion, denoted the presence of young subjects below the age of 

 puberty.* It should also be remarked, that among the human bones 

 taken from the interior of the cavern, J. B. Bonnemaison distin- 

 guished several teeth of large mammals, both carnivorous and her- 

 bivorous. He also collected in the same situation, eighteen small 

 discs, pierced in the centre, doubtless that they might be strmig 

 together as a necklace or bracelet. These discs, which were of a 

 whitish compact substance, fell iuto various hands; some w^ere sent, 

 with some mammalian teeth, to IM. Leymerie, by M. Vieu, superin- 

 tendent of roads and bridges at Aurignac, whose researches in this 

 district of the department have afforded numerous and useful mate- 

 rials for the study of the paleontology of the Haute- Garonne. 



Shortly afterwards M. Leymerie ti-ansmitted to me the mamma- 

 lian teeth, with the information respecting them with which he had 

 himself been furnished, viz., that they had been foiuid on the moun- 

 tain of Pajoles. Amongst them I recognized the molars of the 

 Horse, Ox, (Aurochs ?) a canine tooth of the Hyena, another canine 

 which appeared to me to belong the gi'eat cave Felis, two other teeth 

 of a smaller carnivore, probably a Fox, and, lastly, the point of a 

 Stages antler. 



Subsequently, on my journey to Toulouse, M. Leymerie showed 

 me the small perforated discoid bodies, which had been sent to him 

 at the same time A\dth the above teeth. The hurried examiuation 

 that we made of these objects, whose origin had not then been indi- 



* According to the report of Bonnemaison, the mass of human bones, at the time 

 they were removed from the cavern, included two enth'e crania, but when M. 

 Amiel reached the spot these were no longer so. The operations of removal, trans- 

 port, and second iulimnation, would necessarily occasion other alterations in bones 

 rendered so fragile from their antiquity; but nevertheless the examination of these 

 remains, such as they were, appeared to be very desirable. Measurements taken 

 fi-om the bones of so many individuals, would have afforded, to some extent, the 

 means of deducing the average stature and proportions of this unknown race ; and 

 from the fragments of the face and skull, indications of some value, respecting the 

 general form of the head, might also have been obtained. But unfortunately no 

 one at Aurignac, not even the sexton, after an interval of eight years, retained any 

 recollection of the precise spot at which these human remains had been deposited in a 

 common trench. 



