18 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIES. 



tibia of a Rhinoceros from the sand investing it, he was struck with 

 the appearance of striae, varying in form, depth, and length, which 

 could not have resulted from fracture or from desiccation (the evi- 

 dences of which were also apparent), because they had evidently been 

 formed prior to that operation, and traversed the bone in the direction 

 of its breadth, passing also over its ridges, and otherwise following its 

 contours. These striae, or traces of incisions — very sharp, some very 

 fine and very smooth, the others larger and more obtuse, and as if 

 they had been produced by sharp flakes or denticulated pieces of 

 flint — were accompanied by small incisions or elliptical notches, 

 which were clearly defined, as if they had been produced by the 

 blow of a sharp instrument. A great many of these striae and 

 cavities were covered by ferruginous dendrites and sand, and were 

 also nearly all a little worn, in consequence of the friction and rolling 

 to which the greater number of the bones and teeth had undoubtedly 

 been subjected, before and during their deposition. They immediately 

 recalled to his mind analogous incisions upon the bones of Mammalia 

 from the caverns, the gravels, and the peat-bogs, and also from the 

 infinitely more recent deposits in tombs of various ages. 



Although perfectly convinced in his own mind of the human origin 

 of these marks, yet, for fear of bringing forward an incomplete state- 

 ment, he examined all the collections of bones from Saint-Prest, that 

 he could get access to, in company with M. Lartet, by whom the species 

 were determined. 



M. Desnoyers then states that the examination of more than one 

 hundred bones, of which several are a metre in length, has con- 

 vinced him that the notches (the traces of incisions, of excoriation, 

 and of blows), the striae, whether transverse, rectilinear, sinuous, 

 or elliptical (these being sharper at one end than the other), some- 

 times polished, sometimes subdivided into several striae occupying 

 the cavity of the larger indentation, — in a word, that marks alto- 

 gether analogous to those which are produced by cutting-instruments 

 of flint, with more or less sharp points and more or less jagged edges, 

 are seen on the greater number of these bones. Upon some of them, 

 and particularly upon a portion of the skull of an Elephant belonging 

 to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, may be perceived traces 

 of arrows, which appear to have glanced upon the osseous material 

 after having traversed the hide and the flesh. A sharp triangular 

 cavity caused by the point, and some lateral notches produced by the 

 denticulations of an arrow of flint or of bone, may also be distin- 

 guished. The Mammalia the bones of which present these different 

 appearances are — Elephas meridionalis, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, 

 Hippopotamus major, several species of Deer, of which two are of 

 very great size (Megaceros Carnutorum, Laugel), a large Ox, and a 

 much smaller species. 



All the skulls of Deer which M. Desnoyers has seen appear to 

 have been fractured near the insertion of the two horns, by a violent 

 blow given upon the frontal bone, towards their origin. 



After enumerating the various kinds of bones which present the 

 most distinct traces of incisions, and noticing the occasional occur- 



