LECTURE XII. 345 



almost dissolved small bones, about a decimeter thick. This 

 was covered with a stratum of stalagmite one to two centi- 

 meters in thickness ; tlien came a mass of broken bones, near 

 a conglomerate of large pebbles, cemented by stalagmite. The 

 bones showed no trace of having been rolled, but were so 

 much decomposed that they crumbled into pieces. Above 

 these broken bones, the fractured surfaces of which were clean, 

 there was another stalagmite crust, about forty-five centi- 

 meters thick, covered by a stratum of loam of variable thick- 

 ness. Many of the bones, though very friable, had retained 

 nearly all their organic substance ; but they were strongly im- 

 pregnated with carbonate of lime. 



Amongst the bones of the upper stratum there were a large 

 number of human intermingled with animal bones. The 

 majority of human bones was found at the entrance to the 

 grotto ; shin-bones, thighs, arm-bones, bones of the carpus 

 and tarsus, of fingers, toes, ribs, jaws, and cranial bones, 

 all broken, and a large number of teeth fallen out from their 

 sockets. 



" All the long bones," says Spring, " were broken either 

 in the middle or at the ends; the lower jaws were more 

 abundant than any other skull-bones ; and I possess a piece, 

 as large as a paving-stone, which contains five human jaws, 

 amongst which there is the jaw of a child from seven to eight 

 years of age, the period of the second dentition. 



" I possess many fragments of parietal, temporal, and occi- 

 pital bones, I saw on the spot the parietal half of an entire 

 skull, but it was impossible to extract it without breaking it 

 up. On account of the extremely fragile nature of these 

 bones, I examined this skull before I ventured to give the first 

 blows. This examination, as well as that of other characteristic 

 bones, convinced me that I had before me a race diflTering 

 from the present inhabitants of western and central Europe. 

 The race equally differs from the old Grermanic as well as from 

 the Celtic races, which I had opportunities of examining in 

 various collections of skulls. 



"This skull was very small, both absolutely and in proportion 

 to the development of the jaw; the forehead was flattened. 



