270 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



Note upon some new proofs of the Existence of Man in the Centre of 

 France, at an epoch when certain animals were found there which 

 do not inhabit that country at the present day. 



BY M. DE VIBRAYE. 



The history of the human family in its cradle still presents some 

 points of obscurity which it is highly important to set about the task 

 of removing. I think, therefore, that I may advance the interests of 

 science, by briefly communicating some of the observations, which 

 numerous tours, undertaken in the course of the year 1863, hare 

 enabled me to collect, while exploring caverns, bone-bearing fissures, 

 and land slides. 



I will repeat the expression which I used before the Geological 

 Society of France in 1860, that my evidence cannot be suspected, 

 because I have shared in the doubts that have been entertained with 

 respect to the co-existence of man and animals, some belonging to- 

 extinct species, and others that have migrated to other quarters of 

 the globe in consequence probably of a modification of climate and of > 

 conditions — a modification of which the cause is still undetermined. 



I considered it my duty to extend my investigations to the monu- 

 ments pertaining to that age, which by common consent is termed the 

 Celtic era. I shall not here describe the flint instruments and the 

 specimens of pottery which I have succeeded in collecting ; it is 

 enough for me to invite attention to the obscurities which surround 

 this epoch. In view of the difficulties that beset us, it is of use, I 

 think, to take every opportunity of making comparisons, and to pre- 

 pare a classification of the age of stone, that shall be in some measure 

 chronological. 



According to the generally accepted opinion, the time has not yet 

 come for attributing without criticism to the first ages of mankind, 

 certain polished instruments found alongside of flints bearing traces of 

 a ruder workmanship. Would the diluvial gravels present us with 

 any specimens, as well as the monuments reputed to be Celtic? All 

 that I can vouch for is what the beds of caverns characterized by the 

 presence of numerous bones of the reindeer, notched, fractured, or 

 even wrought, supplied me with : 



1 . In the Fairies' Cave ( Arcy-sur-Eure, Yonne) a hatchet or rathe? 

 a tomahawk of amphibolite of which the workmanship would not 



