I860.] I.AKTET FOSSIL INCISED B0X1>. 171 



•J. On i/i>- Coexistence of Mam uri£h certain Extinct Quabbupbds, 

 proved by Fossil Bones, from various I'i.i [stoi bni Deposits, bearing 

 [noisions ///'/'/i /"/ sharp Instruments. Jiy M. K. Labtet, Foreign 

 Member of the Geological Society. 



[In a Letter to the President.] 



Ym have been good enough t « > offer to communicate to the Geological 

 Society of London the observations which I have for some time past 

 made upon fossil bones exhibiting evident impressions of human 

 agency. The specimens of them which 1 showed to yon yesterday 

 wriv those only whose origin is authentic, and which were obtained 

 from deposits well defined in regard to geological relations. Thus 

 the fragments of the Aurochs exhibiting verydeep incisions,apparently 

 made by an instrument having a waved edge, and the portion of the 

 skull of the Megaesros Hibernicus, in which I thought I recognized 

 significant marks of the mutilation and flaying of a recently slain 

 animal, were obtained from the Lowest layer in the cutting of the Canal 

 de l'Ourcq, near Paris. These very specimens are figured or men- 

 tioned by Cuvier (Oss. Fossiles, 4to. L823, torn, iv. pi. 6. fig. '.>. M. 

 //:/,, rnicus) ; and Alex. Hrongniart ( I)rser.dcs Environs de Paris, 4to. 

 I v i'i'. p. 562, pi. 1 \. fig. LO) has given a detailed description of the 

 deposit, consisting of distinct layers, which he considers to be of 

 higher antiquity than those ofthe valleys. The bones of the Aurochs 

 and the Megaesros were found in the same layer as the remains of 

 the Elephant (Elephas jprimigenius) of which Cuvier has given figures 

 of two molars, which, according to that author, bad not been rolled, 

 and were found under circumstances which -bowed that the] were 

 in an original and not in a remanu deposit. 1 have said that the 

 deep incisione on the bone of an Aurochs from the cutting of the 

 Canal de L'Ourcq (which you may remember 1 sin, wed you in the 

 Gallery ofthe Jardin des Plantes) appear to have been made by an 

 instrument with a waved edge. By this 1 meant an instrument 

 having an edge with slight transverse inflections, so as to produce, 

 by cutting obliquely through the bone, a plane of section somewhat 

 undulated. The cut seems to have been made by a hatchet not 

 entirely finished — a state in which the greatest part ofthe flint im- 

 plements from St. Aoheul, mar Amiens, seem to be; bul in the 

 marked bones of Abbeville and other ancient Localities the incisions 

 idihi have been madi by reotiiu considerations 



would lead u^ to think that, independently of the case of the hat. hi t- 

 simply chipped and roughed out, the place for the manufacture of 

 which might be mar that where thej are now found, those primitive 

 people must have bet d provided with more perfect instruments, stu h 

 as would be more suited to their ordinary wants. 1 should there- 

 fore hesitate to adopt the system (too absolute, in my opinion) of 

 Mr. W who distinguishes the first subdivision of tl 



Period" by hatchet merely ohipped, to the exclusion of 



those that are polished, which he ad subdivision. 



It is to be presumed that the want of mstruments w itb polished suf- 

 and having a fine outtu i m n the 



