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in the cotirse of these important excavations. Having read and translated 

 the original report of Dr. Dupont on these cares, I was especially careful in 

 their examination. The stnicture of the "Trou des Nutons " is particularly 

 well shown. At base, a lirer gravel with rounded drift; next, the '•Lehni," 

 a fine granular deposit ; then the " Loess," consisting of stratified sands and 

 clays, the latter of red colour, of so close and compact a structure, that they 

 break with a conchoidal fracture, and when cut or scraped with a knife 

 exhibit a shining surface. Over all these, and uncouformably to them, lies 

 heaped up against the side of the mountain a mass of angular debris, doubtless 

 a subaerial drift accumulated by the slow action of atmospheric causes, and 

 telling eloquently of the vast lapse of time during which they have bit by 

 bit been gathering. 



In returning, Symonds and some of the party scaled the limestone rocks 

 by a precipitous track leading on the summit to the ancient Roman fortress 

 of Hauteraiscenne, considered by M. Van Beneden to be one of the last 

 strongholds of that people before they were driven across the Rhine. Coins 

 of Gallienus have been found there, which seem to point to the date of its 

 final abandonment. 



After dinner, Symonds and myself went by appointment to inspect the 

 museum of Dr. Dupont. This collection fills three rooms, and is itself such 

 an; illustration of primeval man as cannot be paralleled elsewhere, while it 

 bears no less striking testimory to the energy and enthusiasm of the collector, 

 who has himself personally assisted at the disentombing of every specimen. 

 The cave of Challeux, which we unfortunately failed to visit, appears to have 

 yielded the richest results, no less than 34,000 worked flints, the teeth of 

 as many'as 40.horse3, the remains of bears Ursus spdceus, and arctus, horns of 

 reindeer, C. tarandus and C guettardi, in many cases showing the marks of 

 human handiwork; bones of badger, fox, goat, water-vole, land- vole, &c., 

 of the latter in vast quantities, all of which had been used for food. No 

 human bones were however, so far as I could learn, found in this cave. But, 

 ■without question, the most remarkable object in the collection is the human 

 jaw, from the " Trou de la, NauUtte." This jaw appears to be more ape-like 

 than any yet attributed to man. Yet to man it is decided to belong. The 

 bone of the chin is entirely wanting, and the canines, which are absent, were 

 evidently very powerful, as shown by the size of the orifices for their inser- 

 tion ; the jaw is remarkably small, and must have pertained to a race of 

 diminutive stature. Dr. Dupont entertains no donbt of the vast antiquity 

 of man upon the earth. He said "The man of the Mammoth is the man of 

 the Reindeer, and the Reindeer man is the man of the polished flint period." 

 One fact mentioned by Dr. Dupont is exceedingly curious, namely, that the 

 horse appears to have abounded at the time of the early cave men with rudely 

 worked implements of siles, and was consumed by them for food, but that 

 this quadruped's remains are wholly absent in the polished flint period, from 

 which he argues that the horse was reintroduced at a later period. Amongst 



