244 VALUE OF CAVE-EVIDENCE. 



specimens of the brown bear so closely resemble those of 

 Ursus spelceus that it is not easy to distinguish them. 



So far as concerns the age of the aurochs, the bone- caves 

 have not yet added anything to the knowledge which we 

 have obtained from the study of the tumuli, and of the Swiss 

 lake-dwellings. It would not be possible, within the limits of 

 the present chapter, to mention all the caves in which human 

 remains have been found in association with, and apparently 

 belonging to the same period as those of the extinct mam- 

 malia. I will only call attention to a few of those cases 

 which have been most carefully studied, and in which the 

 conclusions appear to be satisfactorily established. 



It is unnecessary to say that a great number of caves 

 present evidence of having been inhabited during times long 

 subsequent to those which we are now considering ; but for 

 the Neolithic age, as well as for all later periods, we have, 

 as has been already mentioned, other sources of information, 

 and more satisfactory evidence than any which can be derived 

 from the examination of caves. 



Some writers, indeed, have gone so far as to question 

 altogether the value of what may be called cave- evidence. 

 They have suggested that the bones of extinct animals may 

 have lain in the caves for ages before the appearance of man ; 

 that relics of the human period may have been introduced 

 subsequently ; and that remains belonging to very different 

 periods may have thus been mixed together. This was, 

 indeed, the conclusion arrived at by M. Desnoyers, even so 

 recently as the year 1845, in his article on Bone-caves.* 

 Unless this argument admitted of a satisfactory answer, it 

 must be conceded that the evidence derivable from cave 

 contents would always, be liable to grave suspicion. I 



* Recherches Geologiques et his- Dictionnaire Universal d'Histoire Na- 

 toriques sur les cavernes, particuliere - turelle. 

 ment sur les cavernes a ossements. 



