OF WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN COASTS. 
939 
down by divergent currents to lower levels, or they fell into fissures of the rock over 
which the detrital matter passed, or else, when facing the coast, over the ledges of 
the old cliffs rising above the Raised Beaches. Swept down by the intermittent 
currents produced by the more or less rapid uplifts, and falling with the mass of 
detritus in a body over the old cliffs or into the open fissures, the bones, in the one 
case as in the other, were broken and smashed in the extraordinary manner we now 
find them. Added to this was the fall, caused by the earth tremors inevitable with 
such movements, of fragments of rock, some of large size, from the sides of the fissures, 
so that very few of the bones escaped whole. At the same time the action was of 
too short duration, and the transport was to too short a distance to wear down the 
sharp angles either of the rock or the bone fragments. Raised again to the surface, 
the rain waters, percolating through the calcareous rocks traversed by the fissures, 
and carrying down carbonate of lime, have generally cemented the debris of the 
fissures, and occasionally of portions of the “ head ” (Brighton), into a hard brecciated ' 
mass from which it is now difficult to extract the bones. Where, on the contrary, 
the debris remained loose on the surface and formed permeable superficial drift, the 
effect of water percolation has been to remove the calcareous matter together with the 
bones, so that where thus exposed, the rubble is more unfossiliferous than when it 
lies in fissures or hollows where the surface waters could not freely percolate. 
Although the localities of Santenay and Pedemar are on levels so very different 
from those on the shores of the Mediterranean, the conditions which led the animals 
to congregate there were precisely the same. At Nice, at Antibes, and at Cette the 
fissured hills form, as before mentioned, high isolated rocks fronting the sea, and 
connected with the mainland by tracts of lower ground. In each instance these 
isolated hills would assuredly have been resorted to as places of safety from the rising 
waters by the animals of the adjacent plains, as well as by those living amongst the 
rocks and caves of the hills. 
Other osseous breccias analogous to those on the Mediterranean coast have been 
noticed in the departments of the Doubs, Lot, and Haute-Saone, but those I have 
described are sufficient for our object. M. Desnoyers"^ also notices an ossiferous 
deposit on the slopes of the bill of Montmorency, near Paris, which he considered 
analogous in its character with the Mediterranean breccias. In it he found the 
remains of Reindeer, Red Deer, Horse, Wild Boar, Lagomys, Hare, S'permopliilus, 
Beaver, Pole Cat, Marten, &c., together with land shells of recent species, but the 
identity with the true ossiferous fissures does not seem to me complete, though it is 
clear that the deposit was not due to fluviatile agency. The bones are better 
preserved than in the fissure-breccias, and there were several entire or nearly entire 
skeletons with the bones nearly in their natural position. M. Constant Prevost 
spoke of these cavities, which are in gypseous beds of Tertiary age, as pot holes or 
* ‘ Bull. Soc. Geol. de France,’ vol. 13, pp. 290 and 311, 1842. 
6 D 2 
