Belgium.—Notwithstanding the extent and notoriety of Schmerling's early researches, it was not till the latter part of 1863, when Lyell's Antiquity of Man had attracted universal attention, 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 recognize the true significance of their famous countryman's early discoveries, conceived the project of exploring the caverns on the banks of the Meuse, especially those situated along its tributaries, the Lesse and Molignée, on a scale commensurate with the acknowledged importance of the subject. The Government readily sanctioned the project and supplied the necessary funds. M. E. Dupont, Director of the Royal Museum of Natural History, was appointed to carry out the investigations. Active operations were begun in 1864 and continued for upwards of seven years, during which some sixty caverns were more or less explored. Nearly 40,000 bones were examined and classified under the various species of animals they represented—while not fewer than 80,000 worked flints were collected. Judging from the work done at Furfooz in clearing out the Grotte des Nutans and the Trou du Frontal, on the bank of the river Lesse—the only two stations which the present writer had an opportunity of inspecting—the labour entailed in the excavations of so many caverns must have been very arduous.
