Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1875 — Interesting and Important Discoveries In France. [ARTICLE]

Interesting and Important Discoveries In France.

We learn from La Forge (Aube) that an interesting discovery has just been made in Les Corbieres by the engineer of the copper and lead mines near Tnchan. Having remarked at the top of the mountain which overlooks the village of Padern a grotto presenting the character of a dwelling of the prehistoric epoch, researches were made, which have been crowned with complete success. By the side of fragments of skeletons of wild animals and of human bones, the abundance of which shows a long series of generations, the subterranean excavations have brought to light articles of rudely-constructed pottery, daggers made of sharpened bones, and, above all. pieces of shell carved into hooks and pierced with a hole, so as to be hung round the neck of the owner, evidently serving for knives in those remote ages. The use of tools made of shell is a fact which has not yet been demonstrated m the antediluvian caverns. It would lead to the supposition that the vast plains of Le from Perpignan as far as the environs of Estagal, were formerly the bed of the sea, and that the alluvium of the Tet and the Agly is relatively recent. All the objects discovered nave been offered by M. Barnier to the Museum of Natural History at Toulouse. — Galignanfs Messenger.