OF MOULIN-QUIGNON. 617 



is the action limited to iron and manganese. Professor Huxley 

 has described remains of Macrauchenia Boliviensis, from the 

 copper mine of Santa Rosa, in Bolivia, ' in which the bones 

 are all in the same, and that a very peculiar, mineral con- 

 dition, the Haversian canals being for the most part filled 

 up with threads of native copper, so that the fossils are not 

 only exceedingly dense, but in consequence of their internal 

 flexible metallic support, their thinner and more delicate 

 parts bend, rather than break, when force is applied to them.' l 

 Mr. David Forbes, in his account of the geological structure 

 of the region, states ' that the bones themselves are in some 

 instances almost converted into copper, or at least the pores 

 are filled with that metal — a circumstance easily accounted 

 for in strata so highly impregnated with it.' 2 



The labours of the Conference in Paris terminated at this 

 point, and the published proces-verbaux show that the three 

 English members who took a share in the discussion main- 

 tained, upon the intrinsic evidence throughout, that the black 

 coating on the human jaw was not a natural deposit, and 

 that the recent condition of the bone was not consistent with 

 its having been yielded by the ' black seam ' as an original 

 occupant of the bed. The layer of gray sand in the dental 

 canal, and the absence of penetration by the black matrix, 

 suggested the inference that the former was the result of a 

 previous sepulture, and that the latter had been laid on. 



M. Milne-Edwards, in his communication to the Academy 

 of Sciences, already cited, puts the divergence of opinion 

 between the English and French members thus : — 



' De 1' ensemble de ces faits, MM. Falconer, Presfrwich, Carpenter et 

 Busk conclurent qu'il y avait eu fraude au sujet de cet os aussi bien 

 que pour les haches de la couclie inferieure du terrain de Moulin- 

 Quignon ; que tous ces objets devaient etre considered comnie tres- 

 recents et que, suivant toute probability, les ouvriers de la carriere, 

 apres les avoir enduits artinciellement avec de la matiere terreuse 

 provenant de cette couche noire, les avaient enfouis dans une excavation 

 de la carriere, ou leur presence aurait ete ensuite signalee a M. Boucher 

 de Perthes comme une decouverte inattendue. 



' M. de Quatrefages et les autres membres francais de la reunion ne 

 crurent pas devoir tirer les memes conclusions des faits observes. lis 

 constaterent que des cailloux ordinaires tires de la couche noire de 

 Moulin-Quignon, pour servir a l'entretien des routes, se laissaient quel- 

 quefois nettoyer par le lavage non moins facilement que la machoire, et 

 que tous les arguments deja presentes au sujet de finfluence des 

 differentes conditions de gisement sur le degre d'alteration des fossiles 

 etaient applicables a cet os aussi bien qu'a la molaire isolee.' 



1 Quarterly Journ. Geolog. Society, 1861, vol. xvii. p. 74. 



2 Idem, p. 47. 



