320 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHAEOLOGY. 



were supposed to be associated with certain animal species now extinct, 

 was based on a misunderstanding. 1 This was the result arrived at 

 from the investigations of Dr. Beinhard, whom the Royal Museum of 

 Copenhagen sent to the spot to complete the observations of Lund on 

 the living and fossil fauna of Brazil. It would seem, moreover, that 

 the account of this singular fact came from a third party, who must 

 have erroneously stated what Lund himself had doubtless not pro- 

 perly explained. 



The discovery made in the State of Missouri by Koch, who dug out 

 the Hydrarchos and the Zenglodon, and the remains of a Mastodon, 

 which was said to have been killed by man, might well be explained by 

 the customs of the modern Indians, who often make use of any kind 

 of bones, as well as of stones, to build their fire-places and other con- 

 structions of that nature. 2 



Allusions have been made to antique burial places found under an 

 intact covering of lava at Marino, near Albano, in the States of the 

 Church, although there are now in those countries only extinct vol- 

 canoes. But it appears that these tombs had been excavated in gal- 

 leries by entering laterally under the ancient coating of lava. Such 

 is, at least, the opinion of Professor Ponzi at Rome, a geologist of 

 great merit, and of Mr. Pietro Rosa, an archaeologist in great estima- 

 tion with the Germans. 3 



The caverns containing bones in France and Belgium have given 

 rise to long discussions, on account of the mixture they seem to pre- 

 sent, of ancient human remains and supposed fossil bones. The fact 

 that they have, from all time, and especially in the age of stone, been 

 used as dwellings and places of security by man, complicates very 

 much the question, which has not yet been decided in a definite manner. 



The bone caverns of the South of France, among others that of 

 Mialet, (Basses-ctvennes,) have been carefully explored by Mr. Emilien 

 Dumas, who has arrived at the following conclusions : First, that man, 

 the bear, (Ursus spelceics , Blum,) and the hyena {hyaena spelcea, Groldf. ,) 

 have certainly not inhabited these caverns at the same time; second, 

 that the most ancient remains of industry which are found in them 

 are of flint, cut into the shape of little hatchets, and very coarse pot- 

 tery altogether similar to that of the lacustrine habitations of the age 

 of stone in Switzerland. 



Finally, much has been said about human bones, found under the 

 product of an eruption of the Mountain of Denise, an extinct volcano 

 of the Puy en Velay, in France. The discussion bore especially on 

 the determination of the bones, which were at last recognized as really 

 appertaining to man. But it appears that their burial at this point 

 was posterior to the epoch of the activity of the volcano, and that it is 

 explained by a land-slip. Moreover, the volcanoes of Auvergne and 

 the Vivarais must have been still in operation at a quite recent geo- 

 logical epoch; for, in the diluvium of the valley of the Rhone, M. 



1 Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries of the North, 1845, 1847, p. 49. D'Jlrchiac, 

 History of the Progress of Geology, II, 382. 



2 The author has had the opportunity of questioning Mr. Koch in person. 

 8 Communicated by Mr. Gauden, at Lausanne. 



