1833.] Found in the south of France. 635 
is of course in vain to seek in the most ancient histories of these coun- 
tries for any tradition of the violent commotions which the crust of 
the earth has endured (as is now proved), since man became its tenant. 
Geology alone can seek to unravel the general facts in an uncertain thread of 
events, through the gradual development of the records carefully treasured 
in caves and strata, and written in actual symbols of life of less equivocal 
interpretation than Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the subject is yet new, 
the facts limited, and we must be cautioned against coming to any con- 
clusions without the most mature and impartial examination. It is to 
this philosophic caution perhaps that we must attribute the silence of 
Mr. Conyseare on so interesting atopic, in his report on geology to the 
British Association in 1832. After alluding to Professor BuckLann’s 
acute observatioms on the numerous bone caverns of England and Ger- 
many, ‘‘ which have thrown so much light on the particulars of the his- 
tory of so many long-extinct races of animals, and proved beyonda 
doubt that they were originally the inhabitants of the districts where 
their remains are now found ;’” he briefly adds, ‘‘but still on many 
questions connected with this curious and interesting subject, especially 
the relative age of the human bones occasionally found inthe same 
cavern (as at Bize in the South of France), we are bound to compare the 
opposite views of Dz Serres, Curistot, and Tournat, with those of 
Bucxuanp, with whom however DesNnoyers appears entirely to agree.” 
The last edition of Dena Becuu’s manual also barely alludes to the 
fact of human bones having been lately found in the same mass 
with the remains of the extinct rhinoceros and other animals usually 
discovered in caverns. 
We have dwelt at some !ength on this novel subject, in hopes of draw- 
ing the attention of our Indian geologists more zealously to prosecute 
their investigation of the new field of organic remains now opened to 
their labours in the clay of the Dodd and the banks of the Jamna. Should 
it be proved that the bones of man are there really imbedded, and that 
the animals found with him are (like the elephant of Jadalpur) of the 
existing Asiatic ~pecies, it will form a strong and very important link 
of connection between the state of things at two distant epochs of our 
globe, now distinguished as the recent and the fossil periods. 
In digging wells in the Dodb, or in any part of the upper Gangetic 
plain, the search for fossil bones at considerable depths should not be 
neglected, even under the strata of kankar, which occur almost every 
where in the yellow clay. We might not despair even of finding bones 
at the lowermost depth to which we have bored in Calcutta, for the 
yellow clay under the blue alluvial beds contains kankar, and is of the 
caiie apparent age as that of the Doabd. debs 
