INTERGLACIAL EPOCHS. 323 



have mentioned similar facts which point in the same direction. 1 

 Erratics of granite which have come from the Pyrenees are 

 found in considerable numbers beyond the limits of the great 

 terminal moraines described by them. Formerly the transport 

 of such blocks was attributed without hesitation to the action 

 of waters, which, however, as M. Julien remarks, is out of the 

 question. His opinion is that they are the relics of an earlier 

 glacial epoch than that which is represented by the con- 

 spicuous lateral and terminal moraines so beautifully illustrated 

 by MM. Collomb and Martins. 



Dr. Garrigou has also recorded his discovery of traces of two 

 different glacial epochs in the valley of Tarascon (Ariege), 2 

 The morainic debris of the earlier epoch, he says, is easily 

 distinguished from the moraines and erratics of the later period. 

 The former are found abundantly at levels of 800 to 900 metres 

 above the sea ; the latter are met with in the bottom of the 

 valley some 300 metres below the others, and present certain 

 features which serve to distinguish them. During the first 

 epoch the glaciers rose above the level of the Cave of Bouicheta, 

 even to that of Pradieres, which is filled with morainic matter. 

 It is probable, Dr. Garrigou says, that it was the water derived 

 from the melting of the glacier which brought about the 

 appearances visible in the Cave of Bouicheta, — at that time 

 perhaps occasionally occupied by man. In the deeper parts of 

 the cave are found bedded sand and clay containing articles of 

 human handiwork, all of which might have been carried inwards 

 by glacial waters — the objects having previously been left lying 

 at the entrance. 



Again, M. Piette tells us that the frontal moraine of the 

 glaciers of the Pique and the Garonne, which extends between 

 Barbazan and Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, reposes upon the 

 moraine profonde of an older glacier, the materials of which had 

 previously been denuded and rearranged by the action of 

 torrential waters. At a depth of 14 metres in this denuded and 



1 Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 2 e Ser. t. xxv. p. 141 ; Mem. de VAcad. des Sciences 

 de Montpellier, t. vii. p. 47. 



2 Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 2 e Ser. t. xxiv. p. 577. 



