CHAP. iv. DESNOYERS ON HUMAN AND OTHER CAVE BONES. 61 



Bize must be of very high antiquity, as shown by the pre 

 sence, not only of the Lithuanian aurochs (Bison europoeus), 

 but also of the reindeer, which has not been an inhabitant 

 of the South of France in historical times, and which, in that 

 country, is almost everywhere associated, whether in ancient 

 alluvium or in the mud of caverns, with the mammoth. 



In my> work before cited *, I stated that M. Desnoyers, 

 an observer equally well versed in geology and archaeology, 

 had disputed the conclusion arrived at by MM. Tournal and 

 Christol, that the fossil rhinoceros, hysena, bear, and other 

 lost species, had once been inhabitants of France contem 

 poraneously with man. * The flint hatchets and arrow-heads ' 

 he said, ' and the pointed bones and coarse pottery of many 

 French and English caves, agree precisely in character with 

 those found in the tumuli, and under the dolmens (rude 

 altars of unhewn stone) of the primitive inhabitants of Gaul, 

 Britain, and Germany. The human bones, therefore, in the 

 caves which are associated with such fabricated objects, must 

 belong not to antediluvian periods, but to a people in the 

 same stage of civilization as those who constructed the 

 tumuli and altars.' 



f In the Gaulish monuments,' he added, f we find, together 

 with the objects of industry above mentioned, the bones of 

 wild and domestic animals of species now inhabiting Europe, 

 particularly of deer, sheep, wild boars, dogs, horses, and 

 oxen. This fact has been ascertained in Quercy, and other 

 provinces ; and it is supposed by antiquaries that the animals 

 in question were placed beneath the Celtic altars in memory 

 of sacrifices offered to the Gaulish divinity Hesus, and in the 

 tombs to commemorate funeral repasts, and also from a 

 superstition prevalent among savage nations, which induces 

 them to lay up provisions for the manes of the dead in a 



* Principles, 9th eel. p. 739. 



