some entire bones of the great care Bear, (Ursus spelæus). Fox, &c., &c. Outside the caye, where the heap of fallen earth D still remained, and whose upper border is indicated by a dotted line, I noticed, at the base, at E, a blackish layer, eyidently composed of ashes, and of fragments of charcoal and of earth like the surrounding vegetable soil. On breaking with a hammer the surface of this layer of ashes and charcoal, I detached some taurine teeth (Aurochs), teeth of the Reindeer, and some fragments of bone, blackened by the action of fire.
Upon this, the methodical and complete exploration of all the layers, more or less compact or loose, and both within and without the cave, was at once undertaken. The work, which was performed by intelligent men, and constantly under my own superintendence, was completed on two occasions, with an interval of several days. The following are the results obtained:—
The lower layer E, composed of ashes and charcoal, taken as a starting point among such a complexily of circumstances as are evidenced in this locality, indicates in reality the presence of man and the existence of a fire-place or hearth, around which it must be supposed he made his repasts. This hearth was several square metres in extent, and constituted a sort of platform formed of the nummulitic rock, fragments of which had been laid so as to level the natural inequalities of the surface; which here and there presented a good many very thin plates of fissile sandstone, most of which were reddened by the action of fire. The nearest locality at the present day, where this fissile stone is found, is a distance of some hundreds of metres on the other side of the valley, at the foot of the mountain of Portel.
The layer of ashes and charcoal, whose proportionate thickness is exaggerated in the figure, was not in reality more than from six to eight inches thick, and it gradually thinned off towards the entrance of the grotto, into which it did not extend. There were found in it a very great number of teeth, principally of herbivorous animals, together with many hundreds of fragments of their bones. Some of the bones were carbonized, and others simply reddened from having been exposed to a low heat. The greater number did not appear to have been subjected to the action of fire. The majority of the fragments were those of long bones having medullary cavities, and of these, almost all appeared to have been broken in a uniform manner. A great many of those which had not been exposed to fire bore the marked impress of the teeth of a carnivorous beast, which had left only the thick and compact shafts of the great bones of the Aurochs and Rhinoceros. The discovery, among the very ashes of the fire, of the coprolites of the Hyæna showed that it was that powerful carnivore which had doubtless taken advantage of the absence of man to devour the remains of his repasts. It is also to the voracity of the Hyenas that we may attribute the almost complete absence, either on the hearth or in the ossiferous deposit about it, of the vertebræ and other spongy portions of the herbivorous bones.
