ANCIENT GERMANS' INHABITted caves.

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state, either in Europe or elsewhere. The destruction of the forests in which they found shelter, the drying up of the lakes, on the borders of which they found their food, and partial convulsions of nature, sufficiently account, says Dr. Hibbert, for their extinction. In this view, the investigation of the caves in which human bones are found is as much the province of the antiquary as of the geologist. The same geologist assumes as an hypothesis, that the tribes inhabiting Europe, previous to the historical times, were in a state similar to that of the Fins described by Tacitus,-as leading an almost brutish life, destitute even of the earliest rudiments of the arts. Such beings might well be conceived to contend with the beasts, above whom they were so little elevated, for places of shelter they knew not how to construct; or, at all events, they might crawl like the beasts, or the New-Hollanders, into caves or caverns to conceal their dying agonies. At this period the bones could scarcely have been deposited in caves for the purpose of inhumation, the idea of sepulture belonging to a more advanced state. The rude fragments of earthenware found in the same caves belonged to an extremely rude and very early period. The Celtic and Gothic tribes, who supplanted the aborigines of Europe, seemed to have reached the agricultural state. The Germans are described as inhabiting houses built of gross and unhewn materials, constructed without the aid of mortar; and also caves, into which they retired for shelter from the inclemency of the winter, as do the inhabitants of some countries in Northern Asia at present. Traces of these ancient subterraneous habitations are still to be met with in Germany, but much more frequently in France and Italy, where the nature of the rock is more favourable to the task of excavation, and they are most numerous in the south of France. Each cave appears to have been entered by a low chink or fissure, situated almost half way between the floor of the cave and its roof, and differing as little as possible from the level of the avenue by which it was approached. Sometimes the caves are isolated, sometimes they are found in groups. These caves continued to be used even during the feudal period, as could be proved by descriptions of caves met with in different parts of Europe, particularly in the south of France. We recommend to the particular attention of travellers

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the examination of caves and caverns, being an investigation, as appears from the preceding details, not only intimately connected with the early history of man, and of his condition in a low state of civilization even at the present day, but also with the geological history of our species, and of that of several of the more powerful and interesting species of the class of quadrupeds.

In the route from Tripoli to Mourzouk, the first change of rock met with by Dr. Oudney was at Benioleed,* where he remarks there is a rich valley, the sides of which are of limestone hills 400 feet high, capped with greenstone and amygdaloid. The Jibel Gulat, 600 feet high, one of the highest hills he had met with since leaving Tripoli, is considerably to the south of Benioleed. It is composed of marls and limestones, containing fossil oysters and limpets, forming a deposite which is said to resemble the tertiary rock named calcaire grossière of the Paris basin, which occurs in Malta, Sicily, and on the north side of the Mediterranean, on the shores of Italy and France. These limestones continue onwards to the valley of Bonjem,t which was found strewed with gypsum. Captain Lyon mentions gunflints as occurring in the road to Bonjem; while Dr. Ŏudney speaks of striped jaspers and cornelians, but does not mention gun-flints. These rocks continue onwards to Sockna. A short distance to the south of Sockna are the Soudah or Black Mountains. These, Captain Lyon says, rise to a height of 1500 feet, extend about 100 miles in breadth from N. to S., and as far as the eye can reach from E. to W. They are perfectly barren, of very irregular forms, occasionally broken into detached masses, and sometimes rising into cones. They are composed of trap-rocks, said to be of the nature of basalt. After crossing this range, the route to Mourzouk leads across gravelly and sandy tracts, with frequent appearances of dolomite limestone, occasionally rolled masses of basalt, and agates, probably derived from amygdaloidal trap. The road from

*The inhabitants of Benioleed are Arabs. The water is excellent, but some of the wells are 100 feet deep.-LYON.

This is the northern boundary of the kingdom of Fezzan. There are here some perfect remains of a Roman fortress, built by order of Septimius Severus.-LYON.

At Sebha, a town of 800 inhabitants, the population is no longer Arab, but black; hence Captain Lyon, in his map, says, "Sebha, N. lat. 270 black population commences."

Mourzouk, which our travellers left on the 29th of November, 1822, to Traghan, the former capital of Fezzan, presented frequent incrustations of salt. From Traghan to Maefen, the road lies over a mixture of clay and salt. The path, by which all the animals move for several miles, is a narrow space or stripe worn smooth, bearing a resemblance, both in hardness and appearance, to ice. Near Maefen, it assumes a new and more beautiful shape, being traversed by numerous fissures, from the sides of which, and from the roofs of cavities several feet deep, beautiful crystals of salt were observed shooting. The road extends more than twenty miles east and west. The water of Maefen, although impregnated with soda, is not disagreeable to the taste, or unwholesome. The continuation of the journey from Maefen to Gatrone, which occupied two days, was across the sand of the desert, which, it is said, was beautifully fine, round, and red.* This place is surrounded by sand hills and mounds of earth, covered with a tree called athali. Though encamped on the south side of the town, they had cold north and north-west winds; and the temperature in the tent was from 43° to 45° in the mornings. On the 9th December reached Tegerhy. This place they found pleasantly situated. On the 13th left Tegerhy, and proceeded on the Desert: it was scattered with mounds of earth and sand, covered with various shrubs, which were greedily devoured by the camels. On the 16th reached Ghad. On the 17th continued their journey over a stony plain, without the least appearance of vegetation. The exposed rocks were sandstones of different kinds, red and black; fine specimens of petrified wood were found, in which were observed, in the centre, sap-vessels, and knots filled with calcareous matter, the woody fibre charged with a siliceous substance; beautiful rays were observed shooting from the centre to the circumference. The depth of a well they met with, named Meshroo, was from 15 to 20 feet; the water good, and therefore free from saline impregnations: the ground around it was strewed with human skeletons of the slaves who had arrived, exhausted with thirst and fatigue. "The horrid consequences of the slave-trade," says Dr. Oudney, "were strongly

* Captain Lyon mentions gypsum and selenite as occurring in this quarter. This is the southernmost town in Fezzani.

brought to our mind; and, although its horrors are not equal to those of the European trade, still they are sufficient to call up every sympathy, and rouse up every spark of humanity. They are dragged over deserts; water often fails, and also provisions scantily provided for the long and dreary journey. The Moors ascribe the numbers destroyed to the cruelty of the Tibboo traders: there is, perhaps, too much truth in this accusation. Every few miles a skeleton was seen through the whole day; some were partially covered with sand, others with only a small mound formed by the wind; one hand often lay under the head, and frequently both, as if in the act of compressing the head; the skin and membranous substance all shrivel up and dry, from the state of the air. The thick muscular and internal parts only decay." Ranges of hills were seen to the south and east. In the evening the party halted near a well, within half a mile of Meshroo. Around this spot were lying more than one hundred human skeletons, some of them with the skin still remaining attached to the bones,-not even a little sand thrown over them. The Arabs were amused at the horror expressed by the travellers at this sight, and said, they were only blacks; and began knocking about the limbs with the butt-end of their firelocks. "Our camels," says Denham, "did not come up until it was quite dark, and we bivouacked in the midst of these unearthed remains of the victims of persecution and avarice, after a long day's journey of twenty-six miles, in the course of which one of our party counted 107 of these skeletons." They continued journeying until the 21st, partly through sand and among sandstone hills, some of which were 600 feet high. On the 22d, they moved before daylight, passing some rough sand hills mixed with red sandstone, to the west, over a plain of fine gravel, and halted at the matten called El Hammar, close under a bluff-head, which had been in view since quitting their resting-place in the morning. During the last two days they had passed, on an average, from sixty to eighty or ninety human skeletons each day; but the numbers that lay about the wells at El Hammar were countless; those of two women, whose perfect and regular teeth bespoke them young, were particularly shocking; their arms still remained clasped round each other as they had expired, although the flesh had long since perished by being exposed

to the burning rays of the sun, and the blackened bones only left; the nails of the fingers, and some of the sinews of the hand, also remained; and part of the tongue of one of them still appeared through the teeth. They bad now passed six days of desert without the slightest appearance of vegetation. On the following (24th) day, they had alternate plains of loose sand and gravel, and a distant view of some hills to the west. "While," says Denham, "I was dozing on my horse about noon, overcome by the heat of the sun, which at that time of the day always shone with great power, I was suddenly awakened by a crashing under his feet, which startled me excessively. I found that my steed had stepped upon the perfect skeletons of two human beings, cracking their brittle bones under his feet, and, by one trip of his foot, separating a scull from the trunk, which rolled on like a ball before him. This incident gave me a sensation which it took some time to remove."

On the following day, 24th, the plain was observed covered with slight irregularities, and strewed with pieces of variously-coloured calcareous spar and selenite, and thick beds of gypsum were noticed. Halted in the evening at wells situated under a ridge of low white hills of sandstone, called Mafrasben-Kasaretta, where there are also beds and hills of limestone. The whole of the journey this day, 25th, was through hills of a rather bold and picturesque character, of dark-coloured sandstone. One day's journey was also through a tract partly plain, partly of sandstone hills, to a wadey named Izhya. Here the travellers had a gale of wind for three days; their tents were nearly buried with sand, and were obliged to roll themselves up in blankets nearly the whole time. They started again on the 30th, and on the evening of the 31st halted under some low brown sandstone hills. The journey from 1st January to the 6th was partly along and across a ridge of sandstone hills, in no place more than 400 feet high. On the 6th they halted at Tiggema, which is one of the highest points of the sandstone range, about 400 feet high, and hangs over the mud houses of the town. Its sides are nearly perpendicular, and it is detached from the other hills by a chasm. On the 8th, the route still under the range of sandstone hills, they passed a salt lake, and farther east, at Dirkee, two natron lakes. In the centre of each of these lakes is a solid body