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though this deposit is chiefly rich in remains of the reindeer and wild horse, both of these animals having been eaten in great numbers by the ancient denizens of the cavern, - there is here a total absence of the remains of the cave lion, cave bear, hyena, and those large extinct pachyderms that have elsewhere been found in ossiferous deposits. Of the existence of early man in Western Europe with the mammoth, rhinoceros, hyena, etc., there can now be little doubt; but at the time when he occupied the caves of Dordogne and the Aveyron, and left behind, in the hearth stuff of · these caves, such indubitable evidence of his long-continued residence, the larger pachyderms and more formidable beasts of prey had apparently given place to vast migratory herds of reindeer and wild horses, upon which the cave men subsisted, and of the bones and horns of which their weapons of the chase were made. The mammalian fauna of such caves as Kent's Hole, Torquay or Genisla Cave, Gibraltar, may be more varied and remarkable, but as regards the excellence of the drawings of animals on some of the bones, the fine workmanship of the barbed harpoons and bone needles, no cavern has yielded a better or finer series than Bruniquel.Quarterly Science.

KENT'S CAVERN.

Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S., at the meeting of the British Association, was called on by the President to read the "Fifth Report of the Committee on the Exploration of Kent's Cavern." He said that beneath the floor of the "vestibule " was a layer of black soil, 6 to 9 inches deep, which had yielded 366 flint implements, bones and teeth of recent and extinct animals, charcoal, flint cones, etc. It had been objected that people could never have lived in the caverns, because smoke would have suffocated them. An experiment which had been tried, in burning six fagots of wood, showed the fallacy of the objection. In the exploration of the cavern, a daily journal had been kept, and every circumstance was noted down. 3,948 boxes of fossil bones had been found, and these Professor Boyd Dawkins undertook to examine for the purpose of determining the species to which they belonged. Among other objects a bone needle had been found in the black band beneath the stalagmitic floor. The eye was capable of carrying a thread the thickness of thin twine. A bone harpoon, or fish-spear, forked on one side only, had been met with. Other undoubted evidences of early human art had been found. During the years 1868-9, Mr. Everett, who is engaged by the Rajah of Sarawak to explore the caves of Borneo, visited Kent's Hole for the purpose of familiarizing himself with the mode of operation. Mr. Pengelly then detailed the various layers underlying the stalagmitic floor, in which he was aided by a series of large diagrams. The cave earth, or floor underneath the stalagmite, was full of flint implements, teeth of the mammoth, bear, hyena, etc., and gnawed and split bones. Inscriptions dated 1688 had been found on the stalagmitic walls of that part

of the cavern known as the " crypt." The deduction drawn by Mr. Pengelly was that this period of time, although the dripping of water was very copious, had been insufficient to coat over and obliterate the writing. This gives some idea of the immense age of the stalagmite floor, and of the time occupied in its formation. Beneath the earth was a breccia, and up to last year not the slightest traces of man had been found. This year, however, a flint flake was met with, thus carrying the antiquity of man further back. A monthly report had been sent up to Sir Charles Lyell. In some places the stalagmitic floor was as much as 12 feet thick. Associated with the flake were the remains of the cave-lion, the cave-bear, mammoth, etc. In fact, this was the most important anthropological_relic_which the cavern had yielded. Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., had seen the flint flake, and had declared it to be of undoubted human workmanship.

Professor Boyd Dawkins read a few notes on the mammalian remains mentioned by Mr. Pengelly. He showed that the various strata of the floor of the cavern contained remains of animals of different epochs, from the postglacial upwards. During the time the black or upper band was being formed, a race of cannibals inhabited the cavern. The older deposits contained remains of the glutton, a species of hare larger than the existing type, the beaver, etc. Mr. Dawkins concluded by remarking on the vast antiquity of the human race as indicated by the facts mentioned in the report.

OBITUARY

OF MEN EMINENT IN SCIENCE. 1869.

Baber, Rev. Henry Hervey, M.A.,F.R.S., English Scholar and Bibliographer, March 28, æt. 94.

Berard, J. E., French Physicist, July.

Bergenroth, Gustave N., Prussian Scholar, Feb. 13, æt. 53.

Berlioz, Louis Hector, French Musical Composer, March 4, æt. 65.

Cassin, John, American Ornithologist, Jan. 10, æt. 56.

Cleveland, Chas. Dexter, LL.D., American Scholar, Aug. 18, æt. 67.
Dixon, Joseph, American Inventor, June 14, æt. 71.

Du Noyer, George V., Irish Geologist, Jan. 3.

Erdman, Axel Joachim, Swedish Geologist, Dec. 1, æt. 55.

Erdman, O. L., German Chemist, Oct. 9, æt. 65.

Folson, George, LL.D., American Scholar, March 27, æt. 67.

Forbes, James David, Scotch Physicist, Dec. 31, æt. 60.

Gottschalk, Moreau Louis, Musical Composer, Dec. 18, æt. 41.

Graham, Thomas, English Chemist, Sept. 17, æt. 64.

Grisi, Giula, Italian Singer, Nov. 29, æt. 57.

Hengstenburg, Rev. Ernest Wilhelm, German Theologian, June 3, æt. 67.
Hörnes, Dr. Moriz, Austrian Mineralogist, Nov. 4, 1868, æt. 54.

Huet, Paul, French Artist, January, æt. 65.

Jerdan William, British Critic and Author, July 11, æt. 87.

Jomini, Baron Henri, Swiss General and Military Critic, March 24, æt. 90.

Jukes, Joseph Beek, English Geologist, August, æt. 58.

Lamartine, Alphonse, Marie Louis Prat de, French Poet, March 1, æt. 79.

Leys, Baron Henry, Artist.

Libri, Count, Italian Mathematician, October, æt. 69.

Mitchell, William, American Astronomer, April 2, æt. 76.

Nickles, Prof., French Chemist, 1869, æt. 49.

Overbeck, Friedrich, German Artist, November, æt. 80.

Peabody, George, American Philanthropist and Patron of Science, Nov. 4, æt. 75.

Purkinje, Prof. J. E., German Physiologist, July 28, æt. 82.

Reichenbach, Carl von, Ph.D., German Naturalist, Jan. 19, æt. 81.

Roebling, John A., Prussian Engineer, Resident of the United States, July 22, æt. 63.

Roget, Peter Mark, M.D., English Physiologist, Sept. 17, æt. 90.

Sars, Michael, Norwegian Zoölogist, Oct. 22, æt. 65.

Saint-Beuve, Charles Augustin, French Poet and Critic, Oct. 13, æt. 65.

Sclinitzlein, Adalbert, German Botanist, Oct., 1868.

Shumard, Dr. B. E., American Geologist, April 14, æt. 48.

Strong, Prof. Theodore, American Mathematician, Feb. 1, æt. 79.

Strangford, Viscount, English Philologist, Jan. 9, æt. 43.

Tennent, Sir James Emerson, Engiish Traveller, March 6, æt. 75.

Von Martius, Carl F. P., Bavarian Naturalist and Traveller, Dec. 13, 1868, æt. 74.

Welcker, Friedrich G., German Philologist and Archæologist, January, æt. 84.

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Crafts, Prof. J. M. A Short Course in Qualitative Analysis, with the New Notation. 12mo, 133 pp. J. Wiley & Son, New York, 1869.

Gould, B. A., Ph. D. Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiery. 655 pp. 8vo. New York, 1869.

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