444 On Human Bones in the Caves of France. 



in the position, and in the situation in which they had been 

 originally placed. The human hones of these Caves were 

 compared with the oldest ones which could be collected from 

 Gaulish sarcophagi, some of these having been interred for so 

 long a period as fourteen or fifteen centuries. The result of 

 these experiments was to justify the reference of the human 

 bones found in these Caves to an epoch far remoter than 

 what could be assigned to those which were deposited not 

 long after the christian era. It was not, however, so easy to 

 determine from this test, the comparative age of the ossiferous 

 deposits, when considered exclusively, the greater or less 

 abundance of the animal matter appearing to vary with the 

 circumstances under which they were found imbedded, as for 

 instance, with their greater or less protection from the action 

 of external agents. However, as far as could be inferred, the 

 presumption was, that the ossiferous deposits of the Caverns 

 of Lunel-Viel and of the Hermite, in which no human bones 

 had been detected, were the most ancient. 



The f agments of pottery which were submitted to the 

 inspection of the antiquaries of Montpellier, appeared to them 

 to indicate the first infancy of human arts, being pronounced 

 to belong to times anterior to the introduction of Roman in- 

 ventions into Gaul. For instance, the earth of which they 

 had been composed did not seem to have been washed before 

 being used. The earthen vessels had been dried or hardened 

 by the sun, or by a fire kindled on the occasion, but had not 

 owed their baking to furnaces constructed for the purpose, 

 which was shown by their external surfaces only having un- 

 dergone the action of heat. 



But to conclude, — from the circumstances under which 

 these bones are discovered, M. de Serres has very readily ar- 

 rived at two natural conclusions; — 1st, That since the ap- 

 pearance of man upon the earth, certain species of terrestrial 

 mammalia have been completely destroyed, or at least have 

 ceased to exist in the different parts of the globe which have 

 been explored up to the present time ; 2d, That the remains 

 of our species are incontestibly mixed, and are found in the 

 same geological circumstances with certain species of terres- 

 trial mammalia, considered up to the present time as antedi- 

 luvium. 



