522 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



flood— could have been such as we observe so constantly in these 

 bone-breccias. 



The utter insufficiency of this way of solving the difficulties which 

 these collections present may be seen in the account given by M. 

 Alfred Fontan of two bone-caverns in the Montagne du Ker, at 

 Massat, in the Department of Ariege, as extracted from the November 

 number (68) of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of 

 London, page 4G8. 



After noting that there are many of these hollows or grottos in the 

 mountain, he says : " Amongst these caves, two are remarkable on 

 account of their extent. One of them, situated near the summit of 

 the mount, at an elevation of about a hundred metres (three hundred 

 and thirty feet) above the bed of the valley, is approached by a 

 spacious vestibule, or outer chamber, with two large and lofty circu- 

 lar entrances, one of which faces the north, the other north-north- 

 west. The soil of the outer chamber, which, like the rest, was devoid 

 of all stalagmitic concretions, was smooth and horizontal, rising 

 above the sill of the entrance. With the exception of a small por- 

 tion near the north-north-west entrance, where a few fragments of 

 pottery were found, mixed with cinders and coal, it presented the 

 appearance of an abandoned river-bed. A sandy loam, sprinkled with 

 gravel or small rolled pebbles, occupied the centre ; whilst at the 

 edges, against the wall of rock, larger but similarly rolled pebbles 

 appeared to have been thrown up by the eddying or movement of 

 the water. These deposits continued in the same way for a distance 

 of a hundred metres along the principal gallery, only diminishing in 

 thickness as they extended further inwards, and entirely ceasing at 

 the further end. 



" This arrangement, combined with the presence at such a consider- 

 able elevation of rolled pebbles, most of which were different from 

 the rocks of which the mountain consists, appeared to the author as 

 solely attributable to those diluvial cataclysms which geology points 

 to as having occurred at several periods anterior to historical tradi- 

 tion. In order to understand these facts, he determined to study the 

 nature of the deposits ; for which purpose he caused a deep trench 

 to be dug in the soil near the northern opening, and extended it to 

 the lateral walls. The result of this first attempt was the discovery 



