56 Bone Caves. 



Art. IV. — Letter addressed to M. Cordier, Member of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences, on certain new Bone Caves; by Marcel 

 .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 mammiferae could not 

 be limited to the three caves already discovered. I 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 more 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 

 bones. 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 spelceus and arctoideus. By dint of patient 

 perseverance, M. Pittore has had the satisfaction to discover an entire 

 femur of the Ursus spelceus. This femur, which is in perfect preser- 

 vation, has a total length of 18.43 inches; its width, taken ijn 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 a 

 more complete description of the femur of the Ursus spelceus than 

 this great naturalist has been able to give, as that which he has drawn 

 was destitute of its head. 



