[ [6] 'Nouvelles Recherches sur la Coexistence de l'Homme et des grands Mammifères fossiles.' ('Annales de Sciences naturelles, Zoologie,' vol. xv.)
[CHAPTER IV.]
Other Caves of the Epoch of the Great Bear and Mammoth—Type of the Human Race during the Epochs of the Great Bear and the Reindeer—The Skulls from the Caves of Engis and Neanderthal.
With regard to the bone-caves, which have furnished us with such valuable information as to the men who lived in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, we have laid down a necessary distinction, dividing them into caves which served as dens for wild beasts, those which have afforded a refuge for man, and those which were used as his burial-places. In order to complete this subject and set forth the whole of the discoveries which have been made by science on this interesting point, we will say a few words as to the principal bone-caves belonging to the same epoch which have been studied in France, England and Belgium.
We will, in the first place, call attention to the fact that these caverns, taken together, embrace a very long period of time, perhaps an enormous number of centuries, and that hence a considerable difference must result in the nature of the remains of human industry which they contain. Some certainly manifest a perceptible superiority over others in an industrial point of view; but the reason is that they belong to a period somewhat nearer our own, although still forming a part of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth.
We shall divide the caves in France into three groups—those of the east, those of the west and centre, and those of the south.
In the first group, we shall mention the Trou de la Fontaine and the Cave of Sainte-Reine, both situated in the environs of Toul (Meurthe). These two caves have furnished bones of bears, hyænas, and the rhinoceros, along with the products of human industry. That of Sainte-Reine has been explored by M. Guérin, and especially by M. Husson, who has searched it with much care.
The second group includes the grottos des Fées, of Vergisson, Vallières, and La Chaise.