642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



first part of a work which the author hopes to be able to complete 

 under the patronage of his government. 



Nine caverns are now known to exist about Mentone ; these are 

 noticed by our author in inverse sequence to their numbers (i. e., the 

 last, first, and so on). In the fourth (Caverne du Cavillon, or Barma 

 du Cavillon) the skeleton was discovered, and in it the most com- 

 plete explorations have been prosecuted ; the entrance was blocked 

 up till the commencement of this century ; it is about V metres (23 

 feet) wide at the entrance, nearly 19 (62 feet) deep, and 15 or 16 

 (say 50 feet) high. The soil is composed in great part of ashes, the 

 remains of a former cooking-place. For more than three months M. 

 Riviere pushed his investigations, unearthing the remains of animals, 

 shells, and bone or stone instruments, and, at last (on the 26th of 

 March, 1872), was rewarded by uncovering a human foot, at a depth 

 of between 6 and 7 metres (20 feet) below the original floor of the 

 cave. Continuing uninterruptedly and with the greatest care, for 

 eight days, his excavations, he finally exhumed almost the entire 

 skeleton. The skeleton was recumbent on its left side, lengthwise in 

 the cave, near the right wall, and about seven metres from the en- 

 trance ; its attitude was that of repose — that of a man whom sudden 

 and painless death might have surprised in sleep ; so says M. Riviere. 



The skeleton, when studied and compared with those of recent 

 types of miankind, exhibited (so far as we can learn from the memoir) 

 no differences other than of such kind as can be demonstrated in any 

 large collection of skeletons of the various existing races ; the height 

 was above the average (and it is a pity that it was not compared with 

 one that approximated it more in size than the one used in compari- 

 son) ; the arms, legs and feet furnished no unusual proportions, either 

 in ratio to the body, or their own constituents — that is, forearm to 

 humerus, lower leg to thigh, etc. ; the vertebral column and ribs were 

 normal ; the skull was equally normal, save as to the orbits, whose 

 transverse diameter was somewhat greater, and vertical less than 

 usual ; in short, as far as we can ascertain from our author, had the 

 skeleton been found in an ordinary graveyard, no suspicion would 

 have been entertained of its great antiquity. 



But, in the superincumbent and surrounding earth (ashes) were 

 found flint and bone instruments, and the remains of various animals 

 which no longer exist in Europe, or are altogether extinct : among the 

 latter (assuming the correctness of their determination) were remains 

 of a panther (Felis antiqua^ Gerv.), the tichorhine rhinoceros, a mar- 

 mot (Arctomys primigenia^ Gerv.), a deer ( Cervus Corsicanns^ Gerv. ?), 

 and a goat {Capra primigenia^ Gerv ). The tichorhine rhinoceros, as 

 is well known, although now extinct, has been found embalmed — skin 

 and all — in the ice of Siberia, and must have survived long after man 

 had originated. The other mammals cited require further study before 

 their specific claims can be regarded as fully established. As to those 



