to afford a basis of comparison in the case of other and 

 analogous deposits, in which the evidences may be less complete 

 or less perfectly preserved. 



M. DupoNT says: "I picture to myself our mountainous 

 regions as they existed at that period, with their frosts, their 

 forests, their inhabitants, so different from those of the present 

 day. The fine rivers, furrowing the diversified surface of our 

 country, were covered with ice during many months of the year. 

 The oak, the birch, the pine, and the hazel, decked with their 

 dull greens the broken precipices, and were covered with frost 

 and snow during a long winter. The reindeer in great herds; 

 the elk, with broad and palmated antlers, roamed in the forests ; 

 the horse and the ox cropped the grass which was never harvested 

 by man; the chamois bounded from rock to rock; the ungainly 

 bear fed during summer upon the juicy roots and young shoots 

 of trees, and passed the winter in a state of lethargy — -the 

 rapacious glut 'on; wolves and foxes innumerable carried havoc 

 among the peaceful ''denizens of our forests: and amidst these 

 conditions of nature, partaking at the same time of those of the 

 Alps and of Sweden at the present day, appeared Man; not 

 endowed with those wondrous gifbs of civilisation, which render 

 him to some extent master of all the elements, but in a state of 

 the most extreme barbarism; the rocks provided him Avith 

 shelter in their dark cavities, the skins of beasts served him for 

 clothing; perpetually in search of food he passed the day in 

 forests white with frost, hunting the wild animals. His works 

 of industry represent a condition of civilisation wholly rudi- 

 mentary ; neither copper, iron, nor any of the metals which 

 are the mainspring of society as it is at present constituted, were 

 known to him; flints rudely worked, and sharpened bones, 

 supphed him with arms and with household implements." 



A more recent report of M. Dupont to the Belgian Govern- 

 ment brings the record up to the end of last year, and confirms 

 in all respects the conclusions arrived at from his previous 

 examinations. He says: "The man of the caves of the Lesse 

 inhabited the country before an immense inundation covered all 

 Belgium and the North of France; I find manifest proofs of it 



