GEOLOGY. 277 



ness, and is covered by a marly and sandy stratum full of fossil shells 

 (Cyrena cuneiformis, Ostrcea bellovacina, etc.) In August last the 

 workmen discovered a small ball of chalk lying at the top of the 

 lignite bed, and touching that which overlies it. This ball, about six 

 centimetres (two inches) in diameter, attracted attention by its sym- 

 metrical shape, and, on being carefully examined, seemed to present 

 evident marks of human workmanship. It seems impossible to ar- 

 rive at any other conclusion than that it was formed and deposited in 

 the place where it was found previous to the superposition of the fossil 

 bed upon the lignite. This discovery, if substantiated, would carry 

 back the existence of man to an early period in the formation of the 

 great Paris tertiary basin. It is recorded that a flint axe was found 

 forty years ago in the middle of a bed of the same lignite, worked 

 near the village of Liez, canton de la Fere, in the department of the 

 Aisne. 



It will be remembered that a human skull, of a very curious and 

 abnormal shape, was discovered, about two years since, in a cave in 

 the province of Liege. (See Annual Scien. Dis. 1862, pp. 363-365.) 

 M. Malaise, a Belgian palaeontologist, exploring in the same province, 

 has recently discovered certain fragments in a cave at Engihoul, which 

 are valuable as evidence. The cave contains a bed of porous and 

 pebbly silt, varying in thickness from two to three feet, under which 

 lies a layer of stalagmite less than two inches thick ; and it was while 

 examining the soil beneath the stalagmite that the fragments in ques- 

 tion were found. They consist of portions of two lower jawbones and 

 three pieces of skull. In each jawbone the last three molars remain, 

 all but two of which are much worn, and one is decayed. The pieces 

 of skull are identified as fragments of the occipital and parietal bones ; 

 one of the latter is remarkably thick (eight millimetres). Pains were 

 taken at the time of the discovery to observe that in their color, de- 

 gree of decomposition and position, the human bones were in no way 

 to be distinguished from the other animal remains which were confus- 

 edly accumulated under the stalagmite. 



Additional evidence bearing upon the existence of man prior to the 

 so-called drift period has recently been obtained by M. Lartet, a 

 French geologist, in the south of France, on the head-waters of the 

 Garonne. 



Some ten years since, in Aurignac (Haute Garonne), in the Ar- 

 rondissement of St. Gaudens, near the Pyrenees, a cavern was discov- 

 ered in the numniulitic rock. It had been concealed by a heap of 

 fragments of rock and vegetable soil, gradually detached and 

 accumulated, probably by atmospheric agency. In it were found the 

 human remains, it was estimated, of seventeen individuals, which were 

 afterwards buried formally by the order of the mayor of Aurignac. 

 Along with the bones were discovered the teeth of mammals, both 

 carnivora and herbivora ; also certain small perforated corals, such as 

 were used by many ancient peoples as beads, and similar to those 

 gathered in the deposits of Abbeville. The cave had apparently served 

 as a place of sacrifice and of burial. In 1860, M. Lartet visited 

 the spot. In the layer of loose earth at the bottom of the cave he 

 found flint implements, worked portions of a reindeer's horn, mammal 

 bones, and human bones in a remarkable state of preservation. In a 



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