2. Discoveries in belgium.
Notwithstanding Dr Schmerling's early researches it was not till the latter part of 1863, when the din of strife and sensational discoveries in other countries echoed far and wide, that the Belgian authorities became alive to the importance of their caverns. Some of the leading savants, stung with reproach for having left it to foreigners to recognise the true significance of their famous countryman's early discoveries, conceived the project of exploring the caverns on the banks of the Meuse, and especially its tributaries the Molignée and Lesse, on a scale commensurate with the acknowledged importance of the subject. M. Vandenpeereboom, the Minister of the Interior, to whom the matter was referred by the Academy of Science, at once undertook to supply the necessary funds. On the recommendation of Professor Van Beneden, M. E. Dupont was engaged to conduct the proposed investigations. Active operations were begun in 1864 and continued for seven years, during which time upwards of sixty caverns were explored. Nearly 40,000 bones were examined anatomically, and classified under their respective species ; while not less than 80,000 worked flints were collected. Judging from the work done at Furfooz in clearing out the Grotte des Nutons and the Trou du Frontal, the only two stations I have had an opportunity of inspecting, the labour must have been very arduous. Dr Dupont classified all the relics found in these caves under the following consecutive ages.
1. Age du Mammoth.− The relics associated with the mammoth and other Quaternary fauna were found to be lowest, and coeval with the time when the swollen rivers occasionally overflowed into the caves, and left stratified beds of gravel or mud over their floors.
2. Age du Renne.− The period when the rivers, by excavating the valleys more deeply, ceased their fluviatile deposits in the caverns, and so left them above the highest ordinary floodmarks. The portion of débris representing this stage was characterised by the presence of angular blocks mixed with brick-earth. The extinct animals− mammoth, rhinoceros, Irish elk, hyæna, cave-lion, and cave-bear, are no longer represented.
