CAVERNS WITH HUMAN BONES. 



307 



stalagmite, under which there is a lower bed with bones of quad- 

 rupeds. 



The cavern of Miallet, near Andure, (department of Gard,) is 

 situated near the banks of the river Gardon. It occurs in magne- 

 sian limestone, about 100 feet above the valley : the lower bed or 

 floor of the grotto is a sandy magnesian limestone, covered with a 

 thin bed of stalagmite, and also in several parts, with a bed of argil- 

 laceous mud, about five feet in thickness. In this bed the heads and 

 bones of bears were found in great abundance and in a high state of 

 preservation : they were larger than the common cavern bear (Ursus 

 spelceus,) A few fragments of bones of the hyena, of ruminating an- 

 imals, and of birds, were also found with them. Under the stalag- 

 mite and a thin stratum of sandy mud, a great number of human 

 bones were discovered in different parts of the cavern. Towards 

 the farther end of the cavern, the human bones are incontestably 

 mixed with the bones of bears, which predominate in that part: but 

 near the entrance, human bones predominate, and appear somewhat 

 more recent. Upon the ossiferous or bone mud, and under a pro- 

 jection of the rock, a human skeleton was discovered almost entire ; 

 near which was a lamp and a small figure in baked clay, and at a lit- 

 tle distance were copper bracelets. In other parts of the cave were 

 found fragments of rude pottery, and instruments of flint, the work- 

 manship of a preceding age. The human heads are stated to pre- 

 sent indications of belonging to the Caucasian race, but they have a 

 depression of the skull, which M. Tessier supposes to have been pro- 

 duced artificially. 



M. Tessier distinguishes three periods during which this grotto was 

 filled : J St, An antediluvian epoch — that of the bears, which belong 

 to an extinct species ; these he supposes may have lived in the cav- 

 ern during successive generations, or may have been driven there 

 by some great convulsions. 2d, An epoch of incipient civilization, 

 that of the ancient Celts ; whose bones are intermixed with rude im- 

 plements of industry. 3d, A Roman epoch, indicated by more per- 

 fect works of art. With respect to the mixture of human bones 

 with those of bears, it does not prove that the latter were cotempo- 

 raneous with man, because it is obvious that they could not have liv- 

 ed together in the same cavern. The mixture may have been ef- 

 fected by the action of water, or by artificial excavations in the origi- 

 nal bone bed, for sepulchral purposes. 



Perhaps it may yet be regarded as uncertain, whether these hu- 

 man bones were or were not coeval with those of the cavern bear, 

 the rhinoceros, and other animals ; for we have no decided evidence 

 when these animals became entirely extinct. I am inclined to be- 

 lieve, that the mastodon of North America existed there much later 

 than is generally admitted ; the reason for this opinion will be given 

 in the following chapter. Secondly, we cannot assign a reason why 

 man might not have existed in the tertiary epoch, except that his 



