LECTUEE IX. 257 



There are^ to my knowledge^ no human remains at present 

 known to which may be ascribed a higher antiquity. The 

 human remains found by Esper and Rosenmiiller^ in the Fran- 

 conian caves; by Schlotheimjin the gypsum quarries of Kostritz^ 

 in Saxony ; the remains which Marcel de Serres, de Ohristol, 

 and Tourtualj dug out from the caves near MontpelKer, are 

 either lost or inaccessible to examination. Concerning the 

 structure of all these skulls, I found but one notice in a paper 

 by Schaaifhausenj entitled, ''Contributions to the knowledge of 

 the oldest race skulls/^ according to which Link is said to have 

 found amongst Schlotheim^s collection a skull with a remarkably 

 flattened forehead. In all these researches, particular attention 

 must be paid to the age of the human bones, which must be in- 

 ferred from the animal bones associated with them. In this 

 respect we find, even in the few human cave skulls, from pre- 

 historical times, important differences. Thus the Engis and 

 Neander skulls belong to an earlier period ; those of Lombrive 

 to a later period of the same epoch. In all these cases the 

 conditions under which the bones were found are identical. The 

 human corpses were washed into the caves along with the animals 

 they lived with, and imbedded in the same mud. 



There are other caves which furnish decisive evidence, that 

 they served as burial or fire-places, where, besides the remains, 

 flint weapons, coals, and worked bones, are found intermixed 

 with fresh bones, or such as served for food. One of the most 

 interesting of such caves has been recently described by Lartet. 



In the vicinity of Aurignac, in the department of the Haute 

 Graronne, is a hill of nummuhtic limestone, called the beech 

 mountain. At present no beeches are found, nor exists there 

 any tradition of their having formerly flourished there. On 

 the slope of this eminence, about thirteen to fourteen meters 

 above the brook, is seen the entrance to a grotto, about three 

 meters wide and two and a-half meters deep. The entrance 

 to this grotto was formerly concealed by a heap or talus. 

 The sportsmen knew that there was a hole into which the 

 rabbits escaped when pursued by the dogs. A labourer, em- 

 ployed to repair the neighbouring road, one day introduced 

 his hand into the hole and extracted from it a large bone. He 



