76 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



implements, especially spearheads in the form of a laurel 

 leaf, and by the abundance of horses and reindeer which 

 then inhabited the country. Human occupancy was indi- 

 cated by a number of hearths, around which characteristic 

 implements of flint and reindeer-horn were found. The 

 surrounding debris consisted almost entirely of broken 

 bones, chiefly those of the horse and reindeer, evidently the 

 remains of animals that had been used as food by the occu- 

 pants. Encircling the south side, the bones of horses were 

 amassed in such an enormous quantity as to form a kind of 

 protective wall to the settlement. According to MM. Ferry 

 and Arcelin, a cubic metre of this osseous magma contained 

 40 entire canon bones of the horse, and on this basis they 

 calculated the number of individuals represented in the 

 entire mass at 2122. Others, however, estimated them at 

 a much higher figure, Professor Toussaint, of the Veterinary 

 School at Lyon, bringing the total up to 100,000 at least. 



Of the fauna identified at Solutre, besides the horse and 

 reindeer, the following may be mentioned as evidence of the 

 palaeolithic character of the station : — Elciihas primigenius 

 (portions of tusks, teeth, and bones in considerable quantity 

 scattered throughout the debris) ; Bos primigenius (fragments 

 of bones scattered about the hearths) ; Cervus Canadensis 

 (formerly taken for Megaceros) was identified by M. Dupont, 

 who had frequently found remains of this animal in the 

 Belgian caves ; Ursus arctos (a tooth and some rib- 

 fragments) ; Ursus spekeus, Canis lupus, Canis vulpes, Hycena, 

 spelma, etc. 



Throughout a portion of the area within the settlement 

 (and also outside of it) there were some human burials, the 

 bodies lying sometimes immediately over the hearths, but 

 generally at various depths in the debris. Here all the 

 materials were greatly disturbed, pottery and palaeolithic 

 implements being so intermingled that at first it was thought 

 the burials were those of the primary occupants of the station; 

 but subsequent research showed that they were of compara- 

 tively recent date, probably of Merovingian times. It is un- 

 necessary to say any more on the archseological phase of this 

 station, as it is only with its remarkable accumulation of 



