HUMAN BONES, &c. IN THESE CAVES. 97 
“into which were thrown minute arrow-heads, and 
“ slender pins of bone. The cinerary urns were in 
“course of time crushed, and overlaid by masses 
* that loosened by changes of temperature, separated 
“from the vault. Both descriptions of sepulture 
“were slowly glazed over, and in many places 
“ deeply encrusted by the calcareous matter which 
“unceasingly distils from the roof and sides. An 
“ artificial covering was thus formed over the recent 
“as well as ancient deposits, which were thus as 
“if confounded by a common seal. Hence all the 
“mistakes of superficial observers respecting the 
** presence of human relics in the same bed with 
“* fossil.” 
To say that the bones of men and their works 
occurred in the cave, is to say nothing more than 
that some ancient race of people had at some period 
used this cavity as their domicile, or sepulchral 
ground. To say even that their bones, &c. lay 
under a considerable coating of stalagmite, separated 
moreover from the antediluvian reliques by a less 
considerable layer of this crust, would be to express 
nothing more than that the filtering from the rock 
had continued subsequently to the period when 
the bodies or bones of these men had been con- 
signed to, or laid in this grave, as I have before 
shewn when alluding especially to stalagmzte ; and 
if the separate beds of this crust should exist in a 
ratio of thickness of the inverse order, it might 
simply indicate that the power of transmitting cal- 
careous particles varied at different periods, though 
I only insist on this as a possibility. But, waving 
this kind of argument, it seems that in respect of 
the present case, the mode of occurrence of human 
bones and works of art is explained very differently. 
In the same way, I have had the question put to 
me, “ Did you not find human bones, or any relics 
of ancient human art?” I answer,—not the least 
trace of one or the other shewed itself. 
N 
