LECTURE X. 



263 



Belgian caveSj wMcli were contemporaneous with the mammoth 

 and cave bear. The bones are, unfortunately, insufficient to 

 determine the primitive race of Auvergne. The preserved 

 cranial bones do not, however, shew any great deviation from 

 the form at present obtaining in that region. According to all 

 appearance, for hitherto they have not been closely examined, 

 they most closely resemble the cranial type represented in the 

 caves of Lombrive. 



No sooner was attention excited, and the importance of the 

 Denise discovery established, than fraudulent speculation laid 

 hold of it. There are, at present, blocks in the possession 

 of some persons, into which the bones have been inserted arti- 

 ficially, and an eminent naturalist of that county, M. Bravard, 

 informed the Geological Society of France that he had detected 

 a skilful workman in the act of so introducing them. From 

 this it has been inferred that the block first found was also a 

 counterfeit, but its authenticity is now established. Cases of 

 this kind need not surprise us. No sooner is a discovery made 

 than collectors flock to the spot, the English specially, offering 

 high prices. There are some quarries which yield the owner 

 more by their petrifactions than by the building materials they 

 yield. The greater the demand the higher the price, and the 

 greater the inducement to deception and fraud. The workmen 

 themselves now fabricate the desired articles, or produce some- 

 thing new, in which they are as inventive as were the monks 

 of the convent Rheinau, who, of the slabs of Oeningen, with 

 fossil fishes and salamanders, compounded the most fantastic 

 creatures. A similar case occurred recently in Switzerland. 

 When the railroad near Concise was in course of construction, 

 there was found in the Lake of Neufchatel a pile structiire of the 

 stone period, from which were extracted a large number of 

 bones of deer in all stages of workmanship. When the work- 

 men, who at first took little notice of these objects, found 

 out that antiquaries pounced upon them like hawks upon 

 sparrows, they raised the prices, and when the articles became 

 scarce they provided themselves with worked staghorns. 

 Many an antiquary was thus taken in. Mr. Troyon, the con- 

 servator of the Museum of Lausanne, purchased in good faith 



