LAETET ON HUMAN EEMAINS, 59 



gome entire bones of the great cave Bear, (Ursus spelwus),Yox, &e., 

 &c. Outside the cave, where the heap of fallen earth D still re- 

 mained, and whose upper border is indicated by a dotted line, I 

 noticed, at the base, at E, a blackish layer, evidently composed of 

 ashes, and of fragments of charcoal and of earth like the surrounding 

 vegetable sod. On breaking with a hammer the surface of this 

 layer of ashes and charcoal, I detached some taurine teeth (Aurochs), 

 teeth of the lieindeer, and some fragments of bone, blackened by the 

 action of fire. 



Upon this, the methodical and complete exploration of all the 

 layers, more or less compact or loose, and both within and without 

 the cave, was at once undertaken. The work, which was performed 

 by intelligent men, and constantly under my own superintendence, 

 was completed on two occasions, with an interval of several days. 

 The following are the results obtained : — 



The lower layer E, composed of ashes and charcoal, taken as a start- 

 ing point among such a complexity of circumstances as are evidenced in 

 this locality, iudicates in reality the presence of man and the existence 

 of a fire-place or hearth, around which it must be supposed he made his 

 repasts. This hearth was several square metres in extent, and consti- 

 tuted a sort of platform formed of the nummulitic rock, fi'agments 

 of which had been laid so as to level the natural inequalities of the 

 surface ; which here and there presented a good many ^•ery thin plates 

 of fissile sandstone, most of which were reddened by the action of 

 fire. The nearest locality at the present day, where this fissile stone 

 is found, is a distance of some hundreds of metres on the other side 

 of the valley, at the foot of the mountain of Portel. 



The layer of ashes and charcoal, whose proportionate thickness 

 is exaggerated in the figure, was not in reaHty more than from six to 

 eight inches thick, and it gradually thinned off towards the entrance 

 of the grotto, into which it did not extend. There were found in it 

 a very great number of teeth, principally of herbivorous animals, 

 together Avith many hundi-eds of fragments of their bones. Some of 

 the bones were carbonized, and others simply reddened from having 

 been exposed to a low heat. The greater uiunber did not appear to 

 have been subjected to the action of fire. The majority of the frag- 

 ments were those of long bones having medullary cavities, and of 

 tliese, almost aU appeared to have been broken in a uniform manner. 

 A great many of those which had not been exposed to fire bore the 

 marked impress of the teeth of a carnivorous beast, which had left 

 only the thick and compact shafts of the great bones of the Aurochs 

 and Rhinoceros. The discovery, among the very ashes of the fire, 

 of the coprolites of the Hyaena showed that it was that powerful 

 carnivore which had doubtless taken advantage of the absence of 

 man to devour the remains of his repasts. It is also to the voracity 

 of the Hyenas that we may attribute the almost complete absence, 

 either on the hearth or in the ossiferous deposit about it, of the 

 vertebras and other spongy portions of the herbivorous bones. 



