610 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



2. AECH^OLOGY (Pee-Historic), 



And Notices of Becent Archasologieal Works. 



It is now five years since Professor Owen read before the Royal 

 Society the first part of his paper " On the Human Eemains from 

 the Cave of Brnniquel." Early in the present year he commu- 

 nicated the second part, containing the account of the Equine 

 remains. 



This cavern, situated in a Hmestone chff" on the north side of 

 the valley of the Aveyron, Departement Tarne et Garonne, was 

 explored by its proprietor, the Vicomte de Lastic St. Jal, in 1863, 

 and a suite of the remains (selected by Professor Owen) were secured 

 by the Trustees for the British Museum. 



Although this deposit is chiefly rich in remams of the Eeindeer 

 and Wild Horse — both these animals having been eaten in great 

 numbers by the ancient denizens of the cavern — there is here a 

 total absence of the remains of the Cave-lion, Cave-bear, Hyaena, 

 and those large extinct pachyderms that have elsewhere been found 

 in ossiferous deposits. 



Of the existence of early man in Western Europe with the 

 Mammoth, Ehinoceros, Hyaena, &c., there can now be little doubt ; 

 but at the time when he occupied the caves of Dordogne and the 

 Aveyron, and left behind, in the hearth-stuff of these caves, such 

 indubitable evidence of his long-continued ^'esidence, the larger 

 pachyderms and more formidable beasts of prey had apparently 

 given place to vast migratory herds of Eeindeer and Wild Horses, 

 upon which the Cave-men subsisted, and of the bones and horns of 

 which their weapons of the chase were made. 



The mammalian fauna of such caves as Kent's Hole, Torquay, 

 or Genista Cave, Gibraltar, may be more varied and remarkable, 

 but as regards the excellence of the drawings of animals on some of 

 the bones, the fine workmanship of the barbed harpoons and bone 

 needles, no cavern has yielded a better or finer series than that of 

 Bruniquel. 



We shall look forward with much interest to the publication of 

 Prof. Owen's valuable paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions.' 



In some notes " On the Sutherland Gold-field," by the Eev. 

 J. M, Joass, communicated to the Geological Society by Sir 

 Eoderick I. Murchison, Bart.,* the author refers to the Pictish 

 Towers, a class of ancient buildings very numerous in Sutherland, 

 and specially abundant within the ascertained auriferous district. 

 These towers, wherever they occur, from Shetland to the south of 



* See ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xxv., pp. HI 7-32(1. 



