I860.] LAETET — FOSSIL INCISED BOMBS, 479 



sawn with the same kind of tool. You may farther Batisfy your- 

 self that in this fragment nearly all the organic matter remains, 

 although the tooth comes from ancient deposit.*' 



In my letter to M. Lartet I had said that when his communica- 

 tion was read, Dr. Falconer observed that, a considerable time ago, 

 M. Marcel de Serres hud given an account of :i fossil stag's horn that 



had evidently been cut. On this M. Lartei observes — " It is very 



trur, as Dr. Falcone]- remarked, that ML Marcel de Berres gave a 

 figure in 1839 of a Stag's horn cut and fashioned by human hands. 

 I ha<l occasion t'> remark that, a Long time before, M. Tournal 

 in 1829 (Ann. dee Be. Nat. 1829, t. xviii. pp.242 et tea.) and 

 Bchmerling in 1888 (/■«■. eit.) had made similar observations. I 

 might myself have stated that among the bones of caverns I had 

 seen those of the Rhinoceros ami the Reindeer bearing marks that 

 must have been made by man; but I was on my guard against 

 bringing forward those facts, because they would only have afforded 

 opponents an opportunity of bringing forward anew their favourite 

 objection, viz. ' that nothing tint bad been observed in caverns was 

 deserving of any confidence, and that tin- traces left by man on fossil 

 bones might have been made a long time after the introduction of 

 the bones into tie' caverns.' 



■• \\ h .1 constitutes the whole value of my observations on the 

 impressions or marks of human agency on the fossil boms found in 



the diluvial deposits of Abbeville, and in the cutting of the Canal 



de I'Ourcq, i-^ this, that, once admitting the reality of those marks, 

 their relative antiquity rigorously demonstrated by the 



gjoal circumstances of their locality being clearly denned. At 

 Abbeville the marked boms, as will as the flint hatchets, were found 

 in the diluvial gravel, which is itself covered by the Loess deposit. 

 In the cutting of the Canal de l'i hircq, the bones of the Aurochs ami 

 those of the Megaceros Sibernious were found at a depth of 7 n 

 (23 feet), in a bed of earth t /''>/<"< 1 and under other beds in normal 

 stratification. Tiny were not rolled (as Cuvier has said), ami were 



mixed with the remains of an Elephant, ami evidently under the 



conditions "fan original deposit. 



••At tie- meeting of the Geologi 3 I yesterday 



evening, M. do Verneuil exhibited a worked flint hatchel and an 

 Elephant's tusk found in the gravel-pit : r ■ ir Cretin the 



valley of the I ►ise. Tims these worked flints have been found in the 

 diluvium of three of our valleys — of the Bomme, tie- Seine, and the 

 Oise. "—!■:. L. (L.B 



