was empty, but they
were more solid than fresh bones. They did not adhere to the tongue in
the same manner as those of the caverns of Bize and Pondres, yet they
had lost at least three fourths of their original animal matter.

The superior solidity of the Gaulish bones to those in a fresh skeleton
is a fact in perfect accordance with the observations made by Dr.
Mantell on bones taken from a Saxon tumulus near Lewes.

M. Tessier has also described a cavern near Mialet, in the department
of Gard, where the remains of the bear and other animals were mingled
confusedly with human bones, coarse pottery, teeth pierced for amulets,
pointed fragments of bone, bracelets of bronze, and a Roman urn. Part of
this deposit reached to the roof of the cavity, and adhered firmly to
it. The author suggests that the exterior portion of the grotto may at
one period have been a den of bears, and that afterwards the aboriginal
inhabitants of the country took possession of it either for a dwelling
or a burial-place, and left there the coarse pottery, amulets, and
pointed pieces of bone. At a third period the Romans may have used the
cavern as a place of sepulture or concealment, and to them may have
belonged the urn and bracelets of metal. If we then suppose the course
of the neighboring river to be impeded by some temporary cause, a flood
would be occasioned, which, rushing into the open grotto, may have
washed all the remains into the interior caves and tunnels, heaping the
whole confusedly together.[1052]

In the controversy which has arisen on this subject, MM. Marcel de
Serres, De Christol, Tournal, and others, have contended, that the
phenomena of this and other caverns in the south of France prove that
the fossil rhinoceros, hyaena, bear, and several other lost species, were
once contemporaneous inhabitants of the country, together with man;
while M. Desnoyers has supported the opposite opinion. The flint
hatchets and arrow-heads, he says, and the pointed bones and coarse
pottery of many French and English caves, agree precisely in character
with those found in the tumuli, and under the dolmens (rude altars of
unhewn stone) of the primitive inhabitants of Gaul, Britain, and
Germany. The human bones, therefore, in the caves which are associated
with such fabricated objects, must belong not to antediluvian periods,
but to a people in the same stage of civilization as those who
constructed the tumuli and altars.

In the Gaulish monum