Of Western Europe. 23 



drew out a human bone. He began to remove the 

 earth, and found an upright stone slab. Removing the 

 slab, he found a small cavern nearly filled with human 

 bones. The mayor of Aurignac hearing of it, removed 

 the skeletons, and buried them in the village cemetery. 

 But, being a physician, he first examined them suffi- 

 ciently to perceive that they were the bones of eighteen 

 persons, — men, women, and children. 



Mr. Lartet repaired to the spot as soon as he got 

 wind of the discovery, and made a thorough explora- 

 tion. He found in the cave a level floor, apparently 

 of made earth, in which were still left a few human 

 fragments. Besides these were a flint knife which had 

 never been used, eighteen perforated disks of shell 

 which had apparently once formed a necklace, a carved 

 bear's tusk, and a few teeth of a lion. He also found 

 the skeleton of a cave bear, the bones lying in such 

 order and juxtaposition as to show that they had been 

 covered with flesh when placed in the cave. These 

 bones were all undisturbed, and suggest that with the 

 quartz and shell and carved bone, they had been left 

 there as a funeral rite with the buried dead. When the 

 earth outside the cave was removed, a hearth of flint 

 sandstone was found, laid upon a smooth surface, exca- 

 vated underneath. Upon this were evidences of fire. 

 Scattered about were the bones of seventeen animals, 

 including all the extinct species I have named. Many 

 of them were charred by fire and scraped as if by the 

 quartz knife, which had removed the meat. Scattered 

 about were more than a hundred objects of flint, knives, 

 arrow-heads, chips, a flint block from which some of 

 these had been chipped, and one of those pulley-shaped 



