ELEY — ON THE ACCUMULATION OF CAVE-DEPOSITS. 



523 



of a large quantity of bones of carnivora, ruininantia, and rodentia, 

 amongst which were most abundant the great cave-bear described by 

 Cuvier, a large species of hyasna (H. spelaaa), and a large Felis (tiger 

 or lion), all mixed together, rubbed and broken, giving evidence of a 

 distant transport, or at least of a violent displacement. Besides the 

 cinders and charcoal at the surface (with which were associated frag- 

 ments of pottery, an irou poignard, and two Roman coins), another 

 bed of cinders and charcoal was found at a depth of more than three 

 feet in the ossiferous loam, and here M. Fontan found a bone arrow* 

 head and two human teeth ; the latter were at a distance of five or 

 six metres one from the other. 



" The second or lower cavern is situated at the foot of the mountain, 

 close to the road, at an approximating height of twenty metres above 

 the bed of the river. Its only opening, which, like those of the 

 upper cavern, is contrary to the present direction of the water, leads 

 into a tolerably spacious chamber, the ground of which consists of a 

 blackish earth and of large rolled pebbles (some of them granite), 

 amongst which are scattered, in the greatest confusion, fragments of 

 bones belonging to animals either of extinct species, or of such as 

 have for the most part long since ceased to inhabit these regions, 

 They belong principally to deer (Cervus elaphus), antelopes, and 

 aurochs ; and there were a few remains of feline carnivora (appa- 

 rently a lynx). Amongst these were found worked, flints and 

 numerous utensils of bone (deer's bone chiefly), such as bodkins and 

 arrows ; the latter were the most numerous, and are carved with 

 oblique grooves, probably for poison. Some of the bones bear marks 

 of incisions made by sharp instruments in flaying or cutting up the 

 carcasses. 



" In each cavern a chasm crosses the gallery and terminates the 

 deposits ; in the Upper cave at a hundred metres, in the lower one at 

 about seven metres from the entrance." 



After a sentence or two of argument, M. Fontan observes : rt From 

 all these phenomena, the most striking feature in my opinion is this, 

 nanlely, that the Valley of Masset appears to have been at one, and 

 perhaps at several periods, the theatre of a vast inundation coming 

 from the north-north-west or west, in the opposite direction to that 

 of the present course of the waters of this region." 



