264 AURIGNAC. 



the entrance was closed, and which was actually found in its 

 place by Bonnemaison. 



In addition to the hyaena, the animals occurring in this 

 list, and yet no longer existing, or known historically to have 

 existed, in France, are the reindeer, cave- bear, rhinoceros, 

 cave-lion, Irish elk, and mammoth. The contemporaneity 

 of the reindeer with man is very evident ; all tne bones are 

 broken for marrow, and many bear the marks of knives, 

 besides which, the greater number of the bone implements 

 are made out of the bones or horns of this species. That the 

 rhinoceros also was contemporaneous with man is inferred 

 by M. Lartet, firstly, on chemical grounds, "the bones of 

 this species, as well as those of the reindeer, aurochs, etc., 

 having retained the same amount of nitrogen as the human 

 bones from the same locality ; and secondly, because the bones 

 appear to have been broken by man, and in some cases are 

 marked by knives. Moreover, he has ingeniously pointed 

 out that these bones must have belonged to an individual 

 recently killed, because, after having been broken by man, 

 they were gnawed by the hyaenas, which would not have 

 been the case if they had not been fresli and still full of 

 their natural juices. 



The elephant was represented only by some detached 

 plates of molars and a calcaneum. This latter was the 

 only gnawed bone found in the interior of the grotto. It 

 cannot be doubted that these plates were purposely sepa- 

 rated, and the calcaneum appears to have been placed in 

 the vault at the time of the last interments ; but there is 

 no evidence that it was then in a fresh condition* Indeed, 

 the fact of its being gnawed seems rather to point the 

 other way. 



Remains of the Ursus spelceus (cave-bear) were much more 

 abundant, and some of them were found in the grotto. In 

 one case. a whole limb appears to have been buried with the 



