OSSIFEROUS FISSURES IN FRANCE 37 



Ossiferovs Fissures. Other proofs of submergence 

 are not wanting. Of these we can only mention a 

 few of the more striking, amongst which are the 

 Ossiferous Fissures, common not only on the Mediter- 

 ranean coast but even on high hills in Central France. 

 The breccia which fills them contains the remains of 

 Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, and other Quaternary 

 animals ; and what is important to notice is the fact 

 that these fissures are situated on isolated hills which 

 are often of considerable height. To account for the 

 presence of the animal remains, it has been suggested, 

 as in the case of the Plymouth fissures, that the bones 

 are those of animals which fell into open rents, or 

 else that they were remains brought together by 

 predaceous animals. Neither of these explanations 

 can be accepted, for no skeleton is found entire, very 

 few of the bones are in their relative position, and 

 none of the bones have been gnaived by Carnivora. 

 As M. Gaudry observed, when discussing the facts 

 presented by the fissure on the " Montagne db 

 Santenay" a flat-topped hill near Chalons-sur- 

 Saone, " Why should so many Wolves, Bears, Horses, 

 and Oxen, have ascended a hill isolated on all sides ? " 

 Some members of the Geological Society of France 

 present at the reunion at which this remark was 

 made, seemed to think that the animals had met their 

 death by drowning, but in what way was left in- 

 determinate. 1 



In most, if not all, of these cases, these hills rise 

 in the midst of plains or low grounds. At Nice the 

 1 Bull Soc. GcoL de France, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 681. 



