354 
subsequent to the extinct animals, or that the remains of both 
had not been washed in simultaneously by the agency of some 
diluvial current. But here at Aurignac, we find a sepulchral 
chamber with the remains of seventeen human skeletons, 
various bone and flint implements, and, in juxtaposition, the 
bones of a nearly entire skeleton of the great Cave Bear — 
besides bones of various other animals ; — and the aperture to 
this Charnel-house, closed by a large slab of stone, outside of 
which was an accumulation of soil, charcoal, and cinders 
upon a floor of stone, reddened as if by heat, but no human 
bones. The difference, however, in the condition of the 
osseous remains, was very remarkable. Those bones which 
occurred outside had been mostly split up to extract the 
marrow ; some appeared streaked, as if the flesh had been 
scratched off by a flint instrument, the spong}^ parts had been 
knawed and eaten off by Carnivorous animals, probably 
hyaenas, whose bones and coprolites were mixed in abundance 
with the overlying soil, and who had probably prowled about 
the spot after the funeral ceremonies were ended, to devour 
the remnants of the funeral repast. The bones in the 
interior, on the contrary, were all entire and uninjured, 
none broken, gnawed, half-eaten, scraped, or burnt, like 
those lying outside among the ashes, but appeared as if they 
had been deposited with the flesh on them ! Here, then, as 
Sir C. Lyell eloquently observes, — " If the fossil memorials 
have been correctly interpreted ; if we have here before us, at 
the base of the Pyrenees, a sepulchral vault with skeletons of 
human beings, consigned by friends and relatives to their 
last resting-place ; if we have also at the portal of the tomb 
the relics of funeral feasts, and within it indications of viands 
destined for the use of the departed on their wa3 r to a land of 
spirits, while among the funeral gifts are weapons wherewith, 
in other fields, to chase the gigantic deer, the Cave Lion, 
the Cave Bear, and Woolly Rhinoceros, we have at last sue- 
