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On Human Bones discovered in the Caves of France. 

 Abridged from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, No. V. 



There have heen discovered in the Caverns of Bize, human 

 bones not only in the calcareous concretions, or the osseous 

 breccia fixed to the roof or to the walls of these cavities, but 

 also in the midst of the black mud, which is found the most 

 frequently above the red mud, in which bones equally exist. 

 Along with these bones, have been observed human teeth, ma- 

 rine and land shells of our own epoch, as well as fragments 

 of earthenware. The teeth which we have compared, resem- 

 ble the first molar, and like those of other animals which are 

 mixed with them, we perceive that they preserve their enamel. 

 But what they have peculiar to them, is, the roots are so. 

 much changed as to adhere firmly to the tongue. 



Human bones and earthenware fragments were also mixed 

 and confounded in the Caverns of Pondres, with numerous 

 remains of terrestrial mammalia, among which were to be 

 remarked the following animals: — of a rhinoceros; of wild 

 boars; of horses, of a smaller race than the large horses of 

 the Caverns of Lunel-Viel; of two species of Bos, one of 

 which was the Aurochs; of a description of sheep; of a single 

 species of cervus, of the size of the stag ; of a species of bear; 

 of a badger; of the hyaena spelaea, a fossil hind which ap- 

 proaches the most of the spotted hyama, or the hyaena of the 

 Cape ; of rodentia, the size of the hare and rabbit. 



These remains of mammalia were accompanied with the 

 same land shells that we found associated in the Caverns of 

 Lunel-Viel. 



In the Cavern of Souvignargues were detected several hu- 

 man bones, as of the scapula, humerus, radius, perineum, 

 sacrum, and two vertebrae. It is to be remarked, that under 

 these bones there only exists a depXh of twenty centimetres of 

 ' diluvium, so that they were very close to the rock upon which 

 tin's mud had been deposited. 



This position was one which was too important to leave 

 undetermined, with the view of establishing, if by any circum- 

 stance the different beds of gravel had undergone any derange- 

 jnerit, but as we were well convinced that there was not any 

 interposition between them, which is even the case with the 

 superior bed containing shells, nor any sort of dislocation, it 

 is difficult to resist the conclusion, that, whether it be the 

 ■ones, or the different sorts of gravel or mud, they are found 



