240 TEAR-BOOK OP FACTS. 



CO-EXISTENCE OF MAN WITH EXTINCT QUADRUPEDS. 



The following communication has been read to the Geological 

 Society, "On the Co-existence of Man with certain Extinct Quadru- 

 peds, proved by Fossil Bones, from various Pleistocene Deposits, 

 bearing incisions made by sharp instruments." By M. E. Lartet, 

 For.M.G.S. 



The author, having for some time past made observations upon 

 fossil bones exhibiting evident impressions of human agency, was 

 requested by the President, who had examined the specimens in- 

 dicated, to communicate the results of his researches to this Society. 



The specimens referred to are: — 1st, fragments of bones o£ Aurochs exhibiting 

 very deep incisions, made apparently by an instrument haying a waved edge; 

 2udly, a portion of a skidl of Megactros Hibernian*, bearing significant marks of 

 the mutilation and flaying of a recently slain animal. These were obtained from 

 the lowest laver in the ratting of the Canal de l'Oureq, near Paris, and have 

 been figured by Cuvier in his Oltem. Foss. Molars atjBlepha* primigeniui found 

 in the same deposit are figured by Cuvier, who states thai they had not been 

 rolled, but had been deposited in an original and not a remanii- deposit, lirdly. 

 Among bones, with incisions, from the sands of Abbeville, an' a large antler of 

 an extinct stag [CervtU Somen&ntis) and several horns of the common red-deer. 

 4thly. Bon s of J{hi iiocerns ficliorhinits from Menchecourt, near Abbeville, where 

 flints worked by human hands have been found. ytlily. Portions of horns of 

 Megaceros from the British Isles. In reference to the remains of the gigantic 

 deer, M. Lartet alludes to the Rev. J. G. Cuniming's statement, that Btone im- 

 plements have been found in the Isle of .Man embedded with remains of the 

 Megaceros, and that hatchet-marks have been seen on an oak-tree in a sub- 

 merged forest of possibly still older date, (ithly. Fragments "!' bone collected 

 by M. Dclesse from a deposit near Paris, and exhibiting evidence of haying been 

 sawn, not with a smooth metallic saw, but with such an instrument as the flint 

 knives or splinters, with a sharp chisel-edge, found at Abbeville would supply. 



If, says the author, the presence of worked flints in the gravel and 

 sands of the Valley of the Summc have established with certainty the 

 existence of man at the time when those very ancient deposits were 

 formed, the traces of an intentional operation on the bones of Rhi- 

 noceros, Aurochs, Mcf/accros, Cervus, Somencnsis, &c, supply equally 

 the inductive demonstration of the contemporaneity of those species 

 with the human race. M. Lartet points out, that the Aurochs, though 

 still existing, was contemporaneous wiUi the Elephas primigenius, 

 and that its remains occur inpreglacial deposits ; and, indeed, that a 

 great proportion of our living Mammifers have been contempora- 

 neous with K. primigeniut and K. tichorhimu, the first appearance of 

 which in "Western Europe must have been preceded by that of 

 several of our still existing quadrupeds, 



The author accepts M . d'Archiac's determination of the period of 

 the separation of England From the Continent as having been anterior 

 to the formation of the ancient alluvium or "loess," but subsequent 

 to the great rolled gravel-deposits in which the flint hatchets of a 

 primitive people are found. If.M. EL do Beaumont's hypothesis of 

 these gravels being due to the last dislocation of the Alps be at cepted, 

 the worked Hints carried along with the erratic pebbles afford a 

 proof of the existence of man at an epoch when Central Kurope had 

 not yet fully received its present geographical features. 



The author also remarks, that there is good evidence of changes of 

 level having occurred since man began to occupy Europe and the 



