LAETET O^ HUMAN REMAINS. 



57 



All remembrance of Boimemaisou's discovery was nearly lost, 

 when, passing through Anrignae in October, 1860, the circumstances 

 attending it were related to me by M. Vieu, with details not before 

 given, and which led me to decide upon visiting the place. I went 

 there, accompanied by three workmen, one of whom was the original 

 discoverer of the cave. 



The sepulchral vault, in the partially cleared state it had been 

 left by him, was at that time, on the level of the floor, 2J metres 

 deep, and 2| metres high, measured at the centre of the arched 

 entrance, which, as has been before stated, looked towards the N.W. 

 The accompanying wood-cut represents a section of this cavity, or 

 grotto, as it was at the time of my visit, and before the removal of 





the layer B, composed of loose earth and fragments of rock, in 

 which I still found several human bones imbedded, together with 

 flint implements, worked portions of Reindeer's horn, and a consider- 

 able number of mammalian bones, in a state, comparatively speaking, 

 of remarkable nreservation. 



In the figure, the layer £ in the interior of the grotto is represented 

 as continuous with the external layer C, in which the very numerous 

 mammaUan bones were all found broken, or even comminuted, and 

 moreover sometimes burnt or gnawed by cai'nivorous animals. When 

 I inquired of Bonnemaison whether, at the time he discovered the 

 cave, the continuity of the interior layer B with that on the exterior 

 marked C, were not interrupted by the vertical stone slab, by which 

 the entrance was closed, he was unable to give any positive reply. 

 The two parallel dotted Hues therefore, indicating in F the place 

 occupied by the slab, have been continued only to the siu'face of the 

 layer as it existed at the time of my visit. If the stone slab had 

 been preserved, it would have been sufiicient to put it in its original 

 place to ascertain whether it extended below the level of the bone 

 layer, but unfortimately Bonnemaison had found it convenient to 

 break it up for road material. However this may be, the perfect 

 state of preservation of the bones imbedded in the interior layer of 

 the grotto, denotes that the carnivorous animals, the Hj'enas amongst 



