Upon entering through the iron gate at the mouth of the grotto, one finds himself in Bear Hall, wherein a strange calcareous concretion offers the form of the carnivorous animal after which the room is named.  This chamber is about 80 feet in width by 98 in length.  We first descend a slope formed of earth and debris mostly derived from the outside.  This slope, in which are cut several steps, rests upon a hard, compact, and crystalline stalagmitic floor.  Upon turning to the right, we come to the Hall of Columns, the most beautiful of all.  Here the floor bristles with stalagmites, which in several places are connected with the stalactites that depend from the ceiling.  This room is about 50 feet square.  After this we reach the Hall of Crevices, 80 feet square, and this leads to the great Hall of Gargas, which is about 328 feet in length by 80, 98, and 105 in width.  In certain places enormous fissures in the vault rise to a great height.  Some of these, shaped like great inverted funnels, are more than 60 yards in length.  The grotto terminates in the Creeping Hall.  As its name indicates, this part of the cave can only be traversed by lying flat upon the belly.  It gives access to the upper grotto through a narrow and difficult passage that it would be possible to widen, and which would then allow visitors to make their exit by traversing the beautiful upper grotto, whose natural entrance is situated 150 yards above the present one.  This latter was blasted out about thirty years ago.

Upon following the direction of the great crevices, we reach a small chamber, wherein are found the Oubliettes of Gargas—­a vertical well 65 feet feet in depth.  The aperture that gives access to this strange well (rendered important through the paleontological remains collected in it) is no more than two feet in diameter.  Such is the general configuration of the grotto.

In 1865 Dr. Garrigou and Mr. De Chastaignier visited the grotto, and were the first to make excavations therein.  These latter allowed these scientists to ascertain that the great chamber contained the remains of a quaternary fauna, and, near the declivity, a deposit of the reindeer age.

As soon as it was possible to obtain a permit from the Municipal Council of Aventignan to do so, I began the work of excavation, and the persistence with which I continued my explorations led me to discover one of the most important deposits that we possess in the chain of the Pyrenees.  My first excavations in Bear Hall were made in 1873, and were particularly fruitful in an opening 29 feet long by 10 wide that terminates the hall, to the left.  I have remarked that these sorts of retreats in grottoes are generally rich in bones.  Currents of water rushing through the entrance to the grotto carry along the bones—­entire, broken, or gnawed—­that lie upon the ground.  These remains are transported to the depths of the cave, and are often stopped along the walls, and lie buried in the chambers in argillaceous mud.  Rounded flint stones are constantly associated with the bones, and the latter are always in great disorder.  The species that I met with were as follows:  the great cave bear, the little bear, the hyena, the great cat, the rhinoceros, the ox, the horse, and the stag.