384 REVIEWS—GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF MAN’S ANTIQUITY. 
- conceive the former to have been swept into these receptacles by floods- 
acting on loosely-consolidated sediments in which the animal remains 
were previously contained ; but these remains are far too abundant to 
admit of such a conclusion. The question, moreover, has to a great 
extent been set at rest, by some comparatively recent discoveries in 
the south of France, made known, during the course of last year, by 
M. Lartet. Near Aurignac, in the department of the Haute Garonne, . 
a small cavern occurs on the sloping side of a hill, in which many 
‘himdan and extinct animal remains, mixed with some of existing 
species, were discovered in a remarkable state of preservation. The 
_mouth of the cavern was concealed beneath a talus of detrital matter, 
-washed down from the top of the hill; and on this being removed, a 
large slab of rock was found to have heer placed vertically before it 
go as to defend the entrance. It was clear, consequently, that the - 
cavern had been filled by human agency; and further explorations 
“ shewed it to have been a place of sepulture. The human bones are 
thought to have belonged to no less than seventeen individuals | of 
different ages and of both sexes. A great number of flint knives, 
pieces of perforated shell, and other wrought articles, were also found 
“within the cave; and on the outside of the vertical slab of rock, par- 
tially burnt and broken bones of various animals, mixed with ashes 
and other matters, were discovered in some abundance, but without : 
any intermixture of human bones. Hence it is conceived that the 
‘animal remains within the cavern were derived from beasts, slaugh- 
tered and placed there, after the custom of most savage nations, 
“during the sepulchral ceremonies ; ; whilst those without the cavern. 
feasts. The human skulls of this cavern were buried in the cemetery 
at Aurignac, some time before M. Lartet’s visit to the spot, and the: 
exact place of their interment could not be afterwards ascertained. 
They were examined, however, by a surgeon, the mayor of Aurignac, 
when first obtained, and they do not appear to have offered any excep-- 
tional characters. This is also the case with regard to most of the 
skulls obtained from various other caverns in which human _re- 
mains have been found; but in some, an occasional skull of a more 
than ordinarily low type has been met with: The most remarkable of 
these is the now celebrated cranium from a cave near the Neuderthal,. 
not far from Diisseldorf. This presents, according to Huxley and 
other competent observers, a very ape-like character: a fact which. 
