368 Scientific Intelligence, — Geology. 



bones to belong to a large species of palaeotherium. It appears 

 that the quantity of bones is very great. The bed in which 

 they occur already extends along a space of more than twenty 

 metres, and there is no reason to think that it is nearly exhausted. 

 From the facts which M. Cordier communicated to the Aca- 

 demy, he concludes, 1st, That the raammifera belonging to ex- 

 tinct species, of which so many remains have been found in 

 the gypseous formation in the neighbourhood of Paris, and of 

 which some bones have been recognized in a deposite of quartzy 

 sandstone, which is intercalated between the siliceous limestone 

 formation and that of the calcaire grossier, descend, moreover, 

 into the calcaire grossier itself. 2d, That, consequently, these 

 animals have lived at no great distance from the Paris basin, at 

 a period more remote than is commonly supposed; Lastly, 

 That the circumstances which have caused to vary in so re- 

 markable a manner both the minei-alogical nature of the diffe- 

 rent formations which compose the Paris basin, and the nature 

 of the moUusca, whose remains these formations contain, pro- 

 bably exercised no considerable action upon the continental sur- 

 faces which surrounded that basin, since the palooetheria and 

 the other mammifera belonging to similar genera, continued to 

 propagate without any modification, at a time when the for- 

 mations of the basin were undergoing the most remarkable 

 change. 



18. Caves containing Human Remains. — M. Cordier, in 

 June 1829, read to the Academy of Sciences, part of a memoir 

 addressed to him by M. de Christol, Secretary of the Natural 

 History Society of Montpellier, relating to two newly discover- 

 ed caves containing bones in the department of the Garde. 

 These cases were discovered by MM. Dumas and Bonause, 

 they are situated, the one at Pondre, the other at Jouvignargue, 

 near Sommieres. M. de Christol, after examining them with 

 the greatest care, as well as the specimens obtained by digging, 

 is convinced that they present the proof of an incontestible mix- 

 ture of human bones with bones of mammifera belonging to 

 extinct species. The remains of animals mixed with those of 

 the human species belong, according to the author, to the 

 hyena, the badger, the bear, the stag, the aurochs, the ox, the 

 horse, the wild boar and the rhinoceros. Some of the bones 



