174 KELIQUIJE AQUITANICLE. 



caves in the Gorge d'Enfer, a talus has at one time or another accumulated suffi- 

 cient to obscure the mouth of the cave, yet this seems to be the exception rather 

 than the rule. Neither has the river deepened its course to any appreciable 

 extent, as some of the caves or recesses are even now within reach of its highest 

 floods. Still we have evidence of the remarkable power of the cliffs to withstand 

 the influence of weathering, in the well-preserved remains of the ancient rock- 

 habitations which I have mentioned, and in the fact that the extraordinarily 

 severe winter of 1863-64 produced but the slightest effect upon the face of the 

 rocks ; so that with the present climate a small amount of degradation may 

 testify to an enormous lapse of time*. And it must be borne in mind, in com- 

 paring the erosion of the valley during the recent period with the great extent of 

 the total excavation, that in all probability it had gone on to some extent before 

 the submergence of the country during the Miocene period, and that since that 

 time there is no evidence of the valley having been protected by submergence 

 from the erosive power of the river, which therefore must have been in operation 

 for ages, while its power during the period of the great extension of the Glaciers 

 must have been inordinately greater than at present. Though, therefore, the geo- 

 logical changes in the Valley of the Ve"zere have been but slight since the occupa- 

 tion of the caves, they are not inconsistent with a considerable degree of antiquity, 

 historically (not geologically) speaking, being assigned to these deposits. 



I now come to the Palaiontological evidence of the case. The animal remains 

 which have been discovered in the alluvial deposits and caves of the South of 

 France may be, and indeed have been, broadly divided into two groups. The 

 earlier of these, like the Postpliocene group of other parts of Western Europe, is 

 characterized by the presence of Ursus spelceus, Jlytena spelcea, Fells spelcea, 

 Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhimis, and perhaps some other animals, 

 though comprising also most of the members of the later group. The principal 

 of these seem to be Ursus arctos, Canis lupus, Megaceros hibernicm (?), Cervus 

 tarandus, C.elaphus, C.capreolus, Bison priscus, Bos primigenius, Equus caballus, 

 and possibly E. asinus. 



Now it will have been observed that in the deposits of which I have been 

 treating, the older group has been represented by only a few scattered remains, 

 such as might have been introduced by the occupants of the caves from some 

 older deposit in the neighbourhood, if they did not find them even in the caves 

 themselves. A tooth such as the molar of an Elephant would be certain to 



* See the Footnote at page 63, relative to the progress of denudation as calculated by II. Laganne. 

 EDIT. EEL. Aa. 



