Bone Caves. 57 
Besides ‘his fernur, we have a heap of bones which belong to the — 
two species of bears before mentioned, and among them some which — 
are more characteristic: such, for example, are some maxillary bones 
furnished with their teeth. The greater part of these bones, shatter- 
ed and fractured, have their angles blunted and their contours round- 
ed, although in general they do not appear to have been brought from 
a great distance nor to have suffered a prolonged and violent trans- 
port. Like the bones of other caves, they still preserve their natural 
character ; they are not petrified, though they are rather more solid 
than the bones found in the caves of Bize and of Lunel-Vieil. 
They are buried in a reddish mud or sediment, intermingled with 
tolled pebbles, or fragmentary rocks of a small size. The mud through 
which they are scattered, assumes occasionally a dark or grayish shade, 
arising from the decomposition of animal matter; hence the color is 
deeper in places where the bones are most accumulated. This cir- 
cumstance does not prove that the greater portion of the bones bu- 
tied in caves were not introduced after the skeletons of the animals 
were broken up. At least, these bones, like those of Lunel-Vieil, 
are covered with fissures, and cracked more or less deeply. The 
mud containing bones is sometimes covered with a layer of stalag- 
tite; but as this is not observed in all caves, it is possible that some 
ot them may have been dug up at different times, for some of the 
caves have been used as sheep-folds. . Sees 
Our new bone caves, all situated in the department of L’Heérault, 
on both sides of the Cesse, in ascending towards the hamlet of Fau- 
“an, a mile or more north of Cesseras, have this peculiarity, that they 
are united in the same valley. They are, in fact, very near each 
other, even those on each side of the river, and as they are all less 
distant from, high mountains than those of Bize, it appears equally 
Probable that large forests existed formerly in their vicinity. 
tom this may it not be inferred that the species buried in the 
caves, were, at the period in which they were entombed, distributed 
ca them? At any rate they espe ihe os pti 
tn fae ich they have been restricted since the existen : 
7 Me remains of large species of bears are more numerous, 
ihe aly dominant relatively to other terrestrial ee nee 
hia or northern or mountainous countries than in those more 
2 Ot Which in our southern countries are found in drier and warm- 
eF situations. 
OL, AXLAHNo. : 8 
