Notes

Abstract

AMONGST the objects which have been recently added to the galleries of the Paris Industrial Exhibition of Geography, and are attracting public notice, we may mention a collection of French birds exhibited by M. Bouvier, the collection of apes from the Gaboon, by the Marquis de Compiègne, and a number of antediluvian fossils from the Mentone Caves. The skeletons of two children which had been buried together are in a splendid state of preservation, exhibiting admirably the characteristics of prehistoric cave-life. These two young people were buried in the home of their parents, very probably because it was the only means of defending their bones against the teeth of ferocious hyænas and other large carnivorous animals which were disputing with man the empire of the future Gaul. The bones were covered with small shells, of which the loin cloth of the departed youngsters had been made. Neither of them had any ornaments in bone, jaspsr, or pearl, such as is generally discovered under similar circumstances when the skeleton is that of an adult. No child is buried with such objects in Polynesian islands, as none are allowed to wear them even when belonging to the regal families.