276 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



traditional notion of their value.* I picked up in the lower bed of the 

 caverns of Arcy (the stratum of the Ursus Spelcsus), a kidney shaped 

 piece of hydrated geodic iron, analogous to a specimen of the same 

 nature which I procured from the excavation of a dolmen at Birochere, 

 near Pornic ; the same bed likewise contained a substance which I 

 think should be attributed to the peroxyde of manganese. Two ana- 

 logous specimens came from the Devil's Furnace at Bourdeilles (the 

 stratum 'of the Reindeer). Lastly, the hearthstone of Laugerie, 

 parish of Tayac, has made me the possessor of a little mass of copper, 

 almost completely covered with a coating of a green carbonate of 

 copper, and cubic crystals of protoxide of copper. The aspect of this 

 mineral, which, however, I think natural, is analogous to that of the 

 Roman- French ^5m?<» in bronze, enclosing in a cavity similar crystals 

 of oxydized copper. Beyond all doubt the primitive tribes had 

 foreign relations, as is established by the remains of sea-shells found 

 among wrought articles ; at Bourdeilles the Patella and Bentalium ; 

 at Montgaudier, the Buccinum and Bentalium ; at Eyzies, the Cassis. 

 In the same way M. Lartet had discovered at Aurignac certain perfo- 

 rated disks, fashioned from the valves of the Cardium. Similar disks, 

 taken out of the excavation of a dolmen, four miles from Mende, form 

 part of my collection. 



I do not wish to conclude this note without mentioning the presence 

 of splinters of glass quartz among the flint instruments accompanying 

 wrought bones. I collected the first specimen in the lower structure 

 of the caves of Arcy (1862). The same fact is reproduced in 1863 at 

 Montgaudier, and still later at Eyzies. This last fragment of rock 

 crystal, slightly smoked, seems retouched at the edges. 



To add a new fact to my own observations, I shall mention the 

 interesting researches of two generations of Savants. While exploring 

 the banks of the Charente, Messrs. de Rochebrune, father and son, 

 succeeded in rescuing from the vandalism of the workmen some mag- 

 nificent molars of the Mephas Antiquus, accompanied by molars of 

 the Mephas Primigenius, a remarkable fragment of a tusk, and some 

 bones of the limbs, unfortunately too few. Upon one of these last the 

 most evident trace of an incision was recognizable. Among the rolled 

 pebbles and the remains of crystalline rocks accompanying these bones, 



* The tribes who undoubtedly bored the horns of the reindeer, the incisors of the horse 

 and ox, the canines of the wolf, the reindeer, the Ursus Arctos, and the Ursus Spelaus, in 

 order to suspend them by way of ornament or amulet, might equally well attribute to the 

 metals some healing, or even supernatural, virtue. 



