TEANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



or 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



Note on the Exploeatioxs made in the Caverxs of Fitrfooz, in the 

 Province of I^amur. By M. E. Dupont. 



[Notice sur les fouilles scientifiques executees dans les cavernes de Furfooz 

 (province deNamur), par M. Edouard Dupont. Bulletin de I'Academie Koyale 

 de Belgique, 2^ serie, tome xx. p. 244.] 



M. DupoxT, who, in conjunction with M. Van Beneden, was entruste<i 

 with the examination of the caverns in the province of Xamur, lai^l 

 before the Academy in this communication the result of his explo- 

 rations of seven caverns at Furfooz, in that province, named respec- 

 tively Trou des Nutons, Trou du Frontal, Trou Eosette, Trou de la 

 Gatte (chevre) d'Or, Trou qui igne (Trou fumant), Trou Beuviau, 

 and Trou Saint-Barthelemi. 



A general section of the deposits which fill these caves presents the 

 following beds, in descending order : — 



1. Reconstructed {remaniees) beds, containing different objects dating from 

 the Historic period. 



2. Yellow clay, containing numerous angular fragments of limestone. From 

 this bed portions of human skeletons, bones of the Reindeer, G-lutton, Elk, Bear, 

 Chamois, Wild Goat, Bearer, &c., have been obtained. Remains of human in- 

 dustry, consisting of flint knives, worked bones, fragments of a coarse pottery, 

 and traces of hearths were also discovered. 



3. Beds of stalagmite. 



4. A stratified sandy argillaceous deposit without either subangular blocks or 

 bones, often containing concretions of limestone or marlstone. 



5. Beds of rolled pebbles, coming from the Ardennes. These have only fur- 

 nished one tooth of Ursus spel<sv.s and some remains of the Horse. 



6. G-lauconitic gravel with traces of peaty matter, bones of Beaver and other 

 animals, but without any indications of the existence of man. 



The most important bed, however, is the clay with angular blocks, 

 containing human and animal bones, as well as the remains of a rude 

 industry, in great abundance. These bones and instruments carry 

 us back to a very remote period. The inhabitants of the cave were 

 the contemporaries of several species of animals which now only 

 inhabit, some the extreme north, others the summits of the Alps and 

 tlie Pyrenees ; while their industry indicates a state of civilization 

 less advanced than that of the celebrated estabhshments of the stone- 

 age in Denmark and Switzerland. This civilization, M. Dupont con- 

 siders, may be compared to that which M. Lartet and Mr. Christy 

 observed in the south of France, and the remains of which were 

 mingled with a fauna equally comparable to that of Furfooz. 



In the caverns of the environs of Dinant, the same bed, consistent 

 in all its characters, may be observed ; and its stratigraphical analo- 

 gies with the beds which the French geologists call the diluvium rouge 

 of the Paris basin lead the author to suppose that at some future 

 time it will be possible to correlate these two deposits. [A. S.] 



VOL. XXIII. PART n. B 



