440 PALEONTOLOGY. 



the Geological Society," June 22, 1859) the results of his 

 examination of ossiferous caves in Palermo ; and in respect 

 to the " Maccagnone cave," he draws the following inferences : — 

 That, " it was filled up to the roof within the human period, 

 so that a thick layer of bone splinters, teeth, land-shells, 

 coprolites of hyaena, and human objects, was agglutinated to 

 the roof by the infiltration of water holding lime in solution ; 

 that subsequently and within the human period, such a great 

 amount of change took place in the physical configuration of 

 the district as to have caused the cave to be w T ashed out, 

 and emptied of its contents, excepting the floor-breccia and 

 the patches of material cemented to the roof, and since coated 

 with additional stalagmite." (P. 136.) 



After close examination of most of these instruments, 

 including the one discovered by Mr. Flower, I am satisfied 

 that they are the result of design, and the work of human 

 hands. 



The colouring of the fashioned flints perfectly accords 

 with that of the accidentally broken flints in the same gravel- 

 bed, indicating an equal period of rest in such bed. In 

 regard to the geological characters of these * celt '-bearing 

 deposits, their most experienced investigator * states : — 

 " Although closely related to the present configuration of the 

 surface, they are always, more or less, independent of it ;" 

 and although " they are often near present lines of drainage, 

 yet they could not, as a whole, possibly have been formed 

 under their operation." Sir Charles Lyell infers, from the 

 phenomena of the deposits containing the flint implements 

 and mammalian remains, "considerable oscillations in the 

 level of the land in that part of France. Slow movements 

 of upheaval and subsidence, deranging but not wholly dis- 



* Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S., " On the Occurrence of Flint Implements, 

 associated with the Remains of Animals of Extinct Species in Beds of a late 

 Geological Period, in France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England at 

 Hoxne." Philos. Transactions, vol. 150, 1860, p. 277. 



