TRANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



Upon the Material Indications of the Coexistence of Man with 

 Elephas meridionalis in Beds, near Chartres, more ancient than 

 the Quaternary Gravels of the Valleys of the Somite and the 

 Seine. By M. J. Desnoyers. 



[Note sur des Indices materiels de la Coexistence de l'Homme avec V Elephas 

 meridionals dans un terrain des environs de Chartres, plus ancien que les 

 terrains de transport quaternaires des vallees de la Somme et de la Seine ; 

 par M. J. Desnoyers. Comptes Rendus des seances de l'Academie des 

 Sciences, vol. lvi., No. 23, pp. 1073-1083. June 8, 1863.] 



The researches of Dr. Falconer and M. Lartet have made known 

 that amongst the fossil Proboscidea there are at least three perfectly 

 distinct species of Elephas, each characterizing a distinct portion of 

 the later tertiary period. A resume of the well-known fauna of each 

 of these stages is first given by M. Desnoyers, and he then enunciates 

 the several kinds of evidence from a consideration of which the 

 coexistence of man with extinct animals may be inferred, namely : — 



1. The association of human bones with the bones of extinct 

 Mammalia. 



2. The occurrence of objects of human industry, principally 

 instruments of stone (pierre*), in the same beds which contain bones 

 of the large Mammalia. 



3. The traces of the hand of man upon those bones. 



The last kind of evidence the author considers to have a value 

 perhaps superior to that of the other two, because it unites in one 

 specimen the evidence of the action of man with the indication of the 

 coexistent species. Many observers, and especially M. Lartet, have 

 called attention to the occurrence, in caverns, of bones marked in this 

 manner. 



In the middle of last April M. Desnoyers examined the sand-beds 

 of Saint- Prest, near Chartres, well known as a remarkable deposit, 

 containing bones of Elephas meridionalis, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, 

 Hippopotamus major, several species of Deer, a large Ox, a Horse 

 similar to that of the Yal d'Arno, and of other extinct Mammalia 

 considered to belong exclusively to the Pliocene period. 



After giving a description of the beds of Saint-Prest, and noticing 

 the various memoirs that have been written upon them, as well as 

 the principal collections of the bones obtained therefrom, which he 

 had examined, M. Desnoyers remarks that, in partly disengaging the 



* This expression is intended by the author to include only flint implements, 

 and evidently does not refer to implements of stone as technically understood.-:— Ed. 

 VOL. XIX. PART II. D 



