270 Discovery of Fossil Bones in France, 



finding many of his troops were wounded, ordered his cohorts 

 to ascend the hill on every side, as if to scale the walls, which 

 alarmed the enemy, and gave time to quench the flames. 

 The spring was now diverted from its course ; and after an ob- 

 stinate resistance, the enemy, in despair, surrendered. Caesar, 

 finding a severe and striking example was necessary, ordered 

 the hands to be cut off of all those in Usseldon who had borne 

 arms against him *." 



If we add to this, that there was an amphitheatre at Ca^ 

 hors -f- ; the improbability that the bones of the horse, ox, and 

 some of the deer, being of what are termed of extinct species ; 

 and that no large animal was more frequently exhibited than 

 the rhinoceros, — who can doubt that this collection of bones, 

 so evidently placed by design, in the careful positions de- 

 scribed by M. Delpon, is the produce of Roman sports ? 



" In Auvergne^ now Puy-de-Dome, principally in Mount 

 Perrier, near the Issoire, there have been found very lately, in 

 volcanic tufa, bones of thirty species of animals ; and a large 

 proportion of them prove to be extinct and hitherto unknown 

 quadrupeds. Among them are an elephant, a small masto- 

 don, a rhinoceros, hippopotamus, small tapir, many of the 

 genus cervus, two bears, three panthers, a hysena, a fox, an 

 otter J. The bear is similar to the extinct species found in 

 the hyaina cave at Torquay, in Devonshire, and those in the 

 Val d'Arno, discovered with the remains of an elephant || ." 



These animals are all similar to such other collections, in 

 numerous places where Romans resided, or where ruins of am- 

 phitheatres exist. 



The Arverni were powerful opponents of the Romans. " Ver^ 

 cingetorix was grandson to the commander of Gaul, and his 

 father had been put to death by the Romans ; he rebelled, 

 was elected king, and entered into a league with the people of 

 Paris, Poictou, Quercy (at each of which there are the re- 

 mains of an amphitheatre), and other places. When Caesar 

 with his army arrived near Gergovia (said to be Clermont), 

 Vercingetorix had encamped his numerous troops on all the 



* Caesar's Com. by Bladen, b. viii. c. ix. 



t Rees's Cyc. " Cahors." 



X Quarterly Rev., Sep. 1826,p. 511. || Quart. Rev., Oct. 1827, p.402. 



