Bone CaveSi 69 



no attention was paid to the subject of fossil bones, he did not regard 

 them, although he must have discovered some of them, for he work- 

 ed among the mud sufficiently to discover the earthen ware. 



The second of these caverns is called Baume Rouge, from the 

 fragments of red argillaceous marl disseminated through the mud, 

 and which, from their lively hues, have given to the mud of this 

 cavern its intense color. It is the same with the Baume de Mar- 

 couire, which has long served as a sheep-fold, in which the flocks of 

 the neighborhood are sheltered in unfavorable weather. 



The bones, therefore, in the caves of Fauzan, (die number of 

 which is really remarkable,) consisting of terrestrial mammiferae, 

 reptiles and birds, are accompanied by various specimens of pot- 

 tery. Some of these appear to have been made of argillaceous 

 marl, which prior to the manufactory had not been washed, and 

 which had been dried only in the sun or before a fire. Others, of 

 less thickness, had been made with more care. Thus at Fauzan, 

 as at Bize, Fondres and Souvignargues, species, considered hitherto 

 as antediluvian, are entombed in the same mud or sediment in which 

 are tound objects of human fabric, — facts which induce the hope 

 that we may find the bones of our own species. 



These observations confirm then fully what we have advanced, 

 relative to the novelty of the phenomena of the filling up of bone 

 caves, — phenomena which appear to have been posterior, not onlj 

 to the existence of man, but to the inventions of art ; for besides the 

 pottery, you know that our caves contain bones of species supposed 

 to be lost, worked anteriorly to their interment, by the hand of man. 



The caves of Fauzan are not the only ones which we have dis- 

 covered, since I had the pleasure of showing you ray collections. 

 I had presumed that the caves of Vigan, an account of which you 

 have given to the Academy, were certainly not the only ones of the 

 valley of I'Herault in which bones existed. I have, in fact, discov- 

 ered others much nearer to Montpelier than those of Vigan ; I shall 

 have the pleasure of acquainting you with them hereafter. I allude 

 to them now merely to prove to you that bone caves depend upon 

 geological phenomena, which, like all phenomena of this nature, 

 have an extensive generality and an important bearing upon science. 

 May these new researches prove worthy of your attention, as well as 

 that of the Academy of Sciences, to which I beg you to communi- 

 cate them, if you deem them of sufficient interest. 



