252 LECTURE IX. 



oxj and a species of dog differing from the fox and jackal. The 

 bones are chiefly found in close intermixture in the middle of 

 the cave, in a large gallery, where there, no doubt, existed a 

 small lake. All these bones present the same physical and 

 chemical characters, being light, sonorous, and friajble, adher- 

 ing to the tongue, of the same colour, and containing the same 

 amount of nitrogen. Many bones are broken in pieces and 

 rolled, especially in the case of the skulls, some still covered with 

 flesh, which, by its decomposition, imparted a disgusting odour 

 to the osseous breccia. In a calcareous breccia, formed of 

 broken and rolled bones of several hundred individuals, there 

 was a whole skull, and near it some broken, not rolled, frag- 

 ments of bone, belonging, probably, to the same individual. 

 A second smaller skull has since been found. Among objects 

 of art may be mentioned some perforated canine teeth, which 

 were probably worn as amulets or trophies. 



These skulls, which we shall describe presently, and which 

 at any rate are almost the best preserved we possess, belong 

 to a period in which the reindeer, the urus, and the old bear, 

 resembling the brown bear, lived in the Pyrenees, but when 

 the cave-bear and the cave-hytena had already diaappeared. 

 These skulls are therefore not so old as those found in the 

 Belgian caverns. 



In the same Department is the cave of Lherm, of but little 

 depth, but with narrow or wide passages in every direction. The 

 walls are bare, but here and there covered with large protu- 

 berances. Nowhere are furrows or channels indicative of the 

 passage of water to be seen. The bottom is almost every- 

 where covered with a thick layer of red mud, containing no 

 rolled stones, but is in many places covered with a hard crys- 

 talline stalagmite. The entrance to the cave, obstructed by 

 large blocks, leads into a gallery, the stalactites of which can 

 be easily detached, whilst the mud is only present in small 

 heaps. The gallery divides into two passages, the right lead- 

 ing down a terrace into a wide hall, to which some side grottoes 

 impart an irregular form. From the roof hang down some 

 stalactites ; the thick red mud is covered with stalagmite ; 

 there is mud in the side grottoes of the same kind, but without 



