HUMAN BONES POSTDILUVIAN. M. SCHLOTHEIM’S THEORY. 169 
had before contained the more ancient bones and pebbles; but by 
what means, or at what precise period of the postdiluvian era, remains 
yet to be ascertained. 
M. Schlotheim says, “ I am far from thinking satisfactory the 
explanation I have attempted of these phenomena, and am disposed 
to consider the human bones to be of a later epoch than the larger 
land animals of the ancient world; all other reported cases of human 
remains accompanying the bones of beasts of prey have not been con¬ 
firmed on closer investigation.” He dwells also on the circum¬ 
stance, that the limestone cavities which are situated in the hills 
contain only the remains of ancient animals, whilst ancient and 
modern bones occur mixed together only in the gypsum cavities, the 
position of which is at a lower level in a kind of basin at one of the 
lowest parts of the district. 
M. Schlotheim’s hypothesis is that the ancient bones were washed 
out of the upper caves into the lower ones, and thus mixed with the 
modern bones, by a succession of floods, produced by the successive 
bursting of lakes in a higher part of the country; I fully agree with 
him in thinking this explanation unsatisfactory. The chief point, 
however, is conceded, viz. that the human bones are not of the same 
antiquity with those of the antediluvian animals that occur in the 
same caves with them; and thus far the case of Kostritz affords no 
exception to the general fact, that human bones have not been 
discovered in any of those diluvial deposits which have hitherto 
been examined; and in which, from the great abundance they 
contain of the remains of wild animals, that could not have existed 
in numbers sufficient to supply these remains, in a country inha- 
