ELET — ON THE ACCUMULATION OF CAVE-DEPOSITS. 
523 
of a large quantity of bones of carnivora, mininantia, and rodentia, 
amongst which were most abundant the great cave-bear described by 
Cuvier, a large species of hysena (H. spelaea), and a large Felis (tiger 
or lion), all mixed together, nibbed 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 iron 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- 
liead 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 
liave for the most part long since ceased to inhabit these regions. 
Tbey 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 teiminates 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 : " Fronl 
all these phenomena, the most striking feature in my opinion is this, 
namely, 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." 
