Near the town of Aurignac rises the hill of Fajoles, which the inhabitants of the country, in their _patois_, call "_mountagno de las Hajoles_" (beech-tree mountain), a circumstance showing that it was formerly covered with beech-trees. As we have already stated, in the Introduction to this work, it was on one of the slopes of this hill that, in the year 1842, an excavator, named Bonnemaison, discovered a great slab of limestone placed in a vertical position and closing up an arched opening. In the cave closed up by this slab the excavator discovered the remains of seventeen human skeletons! We have already told how these skeletons were removed to the village cemetery, and thus, unfortunately, for ever lost to the researches of science. Eighteen years after, in 1860, M. Lartet, having heard of the event, repaired to the spot, accompanied by Bonnemaison; he quite understood how it had happened that, during a long course of centuries, the cave had escaped the notice of the inhabitants of the country. The entrance to it was concealed by masses of earth which, having been brought down from the top of the hill by the action of the water, had accumulated in front of the entrance, hiding a flat terrace, on which many vestiges of pre-historic times were found. As no disturbance of the ground had taken place in this spot subsequent to the date of the burial, this _talus_ had been sufficient to protect the traces of the men who were contemporary with the mammoth, and to shield their relics from all exterior injury. [Illustration: Fig. 22.--Section of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.] Fig. 22, taken from M. Lartet's article, represents a vertical section of the sepulchral cave at Aurignac. After a rapid inspection of the cave and its surroundings, M. Lartet resolved to make complete and methodical excavations, aided by intelligent workmen labouring under his superintendence; the following are the results he obtained. A bed of "made ground" two feet thick covered the ground of the cave. In this were found some human remains which had escaped the first investigations; also bones of mammals in good preservation, and exhibiting no fractures or teeth-marks, wrought flints, mostly of the _knife_ type (fig. 23), and carved reindeer horns, among which there was an instrument carefully tapered off and rounded, but deprived of its point (fig. 24), the other end being bevelled off, probably to receive a handle. [Illustration: Fig. 23.--Flint Knife found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.] [Illustration: Fig. 24.--Implement made of Reindeer's or Stag's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.] We must here add, that at the time of his discovery Bonnemaison collected, from the midst of the bones, eighteen small discs which were pierced in the centre, and doubtless intended to be strung together in a necklace or bracelet. These discs, which were formed of a white compact substance were recognised as sea-shells of a _Cardium_ species.