THE 
i^taiuralists Ifluntal 
A Monthly Medium for Collectors and Students of Natural History. 
Address of Office : 369, EUSTON ROAD, LONDON, N.W. 
Vol. II. No. 21. MARCH, 1894. Copyright. 
THE MENTONE CAVE MEN. 
By G. H. Bryan, m.a. 
t HE discovery of prehistoric human remains is always of 
great interest, for the few vestiges of by-gone races 
which are preserved to us in caves form a connecting 
link between the present and the past ages and teach us 
many lessons about the development and habits of our earliest 
forefathers. A considerable sensation was therefore naturally 
produced, both among the residents on the Riviera and in the 
scientific world generally, by the announcement of the discovery 
(on the 7th of February, 1892) of three complete skeletons in¬ 
terred together in one of the bone caves of the Red Rocks 
which—even in spite of quarrying operations—still form such a 
picturesque and noticeable boundary to the eastern bay of Men¬ 
tone. 
As it was my good fortune, during a recent trip on the Riviera, 
to see these skeletons and the various implements and ornaments 
found at the same time, it may be perhaps interesting if I give a 
short account of them. 
The Rochers Rouges or Baousse Rousse as they are called in 
the local Mentonasque dialect, consist of a fine perpendicular cliff 
of Jurassic limestone at the foot of a range of lofty hills just 
beyond the Italian frontier, a little eastward of Mentone. Owing 
to the action of weather during countless ages coupled with the 
presence of iron, this rock, like many other rocks in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, has assumed a beautiful oran ge red colour, and at its base 
are hollowed out several caves which have afforded shelter during 
past ages for both wild animals and prehistoric men. There is 
a little disagreement between the various authorities about the 
number of these caves, for M. Riviere, of Paris, enumerates six 
