56 Bone Caves. 
Arr. IV.—Letter addressed to M. Cordier, Member of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences, on certain new Bone Caves; by Marcet 
De Serres, Professor of Geology, &c. at Montpelier. 
(Abstracted from the Annales des Mines, by J. GRIScOM.) 
Sir—You know that I have stated the belief that the presence of 
bones in caves was dependent on certain conditions, the non-existence 
of which is an almost sure indication of the absence of animal remains, 
which otherwise are found to be very numerous. You know also that 
I have insisted, particularly, on the number of bones entombed in the 
caves of Bize, which are found there in such quantities as to induce 
me.to believe that these remains of terrestrial mammifere could not 
be limited to the three caves already discovered. 1 have presumed 
the more on this from the fact, that vertical fissures and longitudinal 
clefts or caves are very common in the secondary mountains. which’ 
bound the valley through which flows-the river Cesse. It has ap- 
peared to me that in ascending the Cesse above Bize, the number of 
these cavities becomes niore and more considerable, and that they 
present the conditions under which we are justified in believing that 
bones will certainly be found. 
M. Pittore, a young physician, zealous in the cultivation of natural 
science, has pursued these indications, and his researches have been 
crowned with the most happy success. Of thirty caves which he 
has discovered in the secondary limestone which borders the two 
shores of the Cesse, five of those which he has explored contain 
ones. These bones relate to species considered as fossil and ante 
diluvian, terms which are no longer appropriate, since here, as well 
as elsewhere, they are confounded in the same mud in which are dis 
covered fragments of pottery ware. The prevailing kinds in these 
new caves are the Ursus speleus and arctoideus. By dint of patient 
perseverance, M. Pittore has had the satisfaction to discover an entire 
femur of the Ursus speleus. This femur, which is in perfect preset 
vation, has a total length of 18.43 inches; its width, taken in the mid- 
dle of its body, is 1.89 inches, whilst in the lower part it is 3.95 inch- 
es, dimensions which accord perfectly with those given to the femur 
of. this species by M. Cuvier. This specimen enables us to give @ 
more complete description of the femur of the Ursus spelwus than 
spats tus 
this great naturalist has been able to give, as that which he has drawn 
was destitute of its head. 
