1864. ] Geology and Palwontology. 327 
for the sake of their marrow being distinguishable from those crushed 
by animals, even when they occur together in the same deposit. M. 
Gervais has also a digital extremity of the posterior canon and other 
similar fragments of the long bones of Bos primigenius separated from 
their middle portions by violent fracture, evidently accomplished by 
the hand of man. By referring to M. de Serres’ plates in conjunction 
with specimens recently obtained, this able paleontologist concludes 
that the majority of the extinct deer referred to belong to the Rein- 
deer, and remarks that they exhibit this distinctive feature, that the 
long bones, instead of being entire, as they are in such caverns as 
those of Brengues which were not inhabited by man, have at Bize 
been broken; so that if the men of the Cave period had not domes- 
ticated these animals, they at least made use of their carcases. It 
may not be superfluous to add that this cavern contains the débris 
of primitive pottery, flint-knives, and implements set in deer’s horn 
and in bone. The cavern of Pondres also contains diluvian animals 
—Rhinoceros tichorhinus, ox, cave-bear, Felis spelea, and hyena, and 
has often been quoted in support of the high antiquity of man in 
Europe, remains of his skeleton, his flint knives, and coarse pottery 
or charcoal haying been found in it. These, according to M. Ger- 
vais, are mixed pell-mell with the remains of the extinct animals, 
whence he questions whether there has not been some amount of inter- 
mingling. All that he can positively assure himself of is, that 
the bones of the large animals have not been broken like those met 
with in caverns which haye served as habitations for the primitive in- 
habitants of our globe, and he consequently doubts the conclusions of 
MM. Christol and Dumas as to the contemporaneity, in this instance, 
of the relics of the fossil mammals and those of man with whom 
they are associated. In respect to Lunel-Viel, M. Gervais thinks it 
can scarcely be cited in favour of the contemporaneity of man with 
the extinct diluvian species, as, notwithstanding the restricted extent 
of the caves in which the human bones have been found, no traces 
of its inhabitation by man, nor any relics of works, have been brought 
to light. He considers, therefore, that this cavern belongs to the 
class of those which M. Steenstrup regards as entirely filled before 
the agency of man; and he is the more inclined to this opinion, 
as the animal-bones are not broken by human methods, but are merely 
crunched by the teeth of carnivora, especially hyenas. He asks, 
hence, whether, as a general rule, we may not conclude, when the 
marrow-bones of the food-beasts are intact, that the comminglings 
of the human with the animal-remains have not been due to the sub- 
sequent intervention of floods, burials, or various other upstirrings 
of the deposits in which such comminglings occur—an opinion con- 
firmed by the following facts from the cavern of Pontil :—Some 
years since, M. Gervais found there numerous bones of extinct species, 
as at Lunel-Viel and Pondres, also human bones and some industrial 
relics ; the former belonging to a primitive epoch, and the last, more 
recent, had also been shown to him as coming from the same cavern. 
At that time he abstained from speaking of them, not having sufi- 
ciently reliable particulars. Now, however, he is better qualified to 
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