FAUNA, FLOE A, AND INHABITANTS. 



393 



precious treasures, including not only the bones of extinct animals, but also those 

 of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. The cavern of Goyet, which yielded 

 the bones of five hundred bears, is interesting, no doubt, but must cede to that of 

 Engis, near Liège, in which Schmerling, some forty years ago, found a human 

 skull amongst the bones of rhinoceroses, elephants, and other large animals now 

 extinct. That lucky find confirmed Tournal's discovery of 1828, and victoriously 

 demonstrated the fact that man was a contemporary of these gigantic pachyderms, 



Fie:. 221.— A View in the Valley of the Lesse. 



and had struo-oled with bears, hyenas, and lions for the possession of the caverns 

 which he inhabited. 



The rude stone implements of the earliest human inhabitants of Belgium 

 have been discovered at Mesmin, near Namur. Man at that time shared the 

 country with the mammoth and rhinoceros, and lived principally in the plain. 



The charming valley of the Lesse, which joins that of the Meuse above 

 Dinant, was hardly visited formerly, but became suddenly famous through the 

 discovery of prehistoric remains by M. Dupont in 1864. Its cliffs, near the 

 villao-e of Furfooz, abound in caverns, one of which, known as the hole of the 

 Nutons, was popularly supposed to be the dwelling-place of hobgoblins. These 

 caverns were inhabited by men of the stone age. The troglodytoe of the Lesse 

 knew how to make fire by means of flints. They were hunters, and had no 



