236 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



that " it is not a distinct species, but is identical with the Grays 

 Thurrock species, or R. leptorhinus {?nihi)." And we further 

 find in a note (p. 316), that Kaup himself in a later work (Beitrage, 

 I Heft, p. 4) had given up R. merckii for R. leptorhinus ; though 

 we are not, in our inability to refer to the original, willing to place 

 much stress upon this, as it is not improbable that Dr Kaup under 

 R. leptorhinus may have understood R. hemitoechus. We shall be 

 curious to see how M. I-artet explains the difficulty. 



We are compelled to pass over without comment a number of 

 the succeeding papers, amongst which are those on Plagiaulax, and 

 numerous short notes and memoranda on Hyaena, Ursus, (S:c., and 

 proceed to notice the concluding portion of the volume, which is 

 chiefly occupied by various papers on antrological subjects — as the 

 Ossiferous Caverns of Brixham, Gower, Sicily, and Gibraltar, 

 together with an Essay, or rather the commencement of an Essay 

 on " Primeval Man and his Contemporaries," which was written 

 in 1863, and intended, as we are informed, "as an introduction to 

 a distinct work with the above title, the object of which was to set 

 forth the physical Proofs of the remote Antiquity of the Human 

 Race and the physical condition of the earth's crust prior to and at 

 the date of Man's first Appearance." 



As we have before remarked, Dr Falconer's attention from the 

 commencement of his scientific career had been much devoted to 

 the above subject, and the present paper, appropriately placed at 

 the end of a compilation of his labours affords clear evidence how 

 deeply the subject had entered into his thoughts throughout 

 his life. It would in fact be quite true to assert that the 

 antiquity of man and the questions connected with it, formed a 

 constant stimulus to his palaeontological inquiries, whether on the 

 plains and mountains of India, or in the caverns and superficial 

 deposits of Europe. Nor would it be going too far to maintain 

 that to no single individual can be assigned a greater if so great a 

 share in giving the first impetus to those researches respecting the 

 quarternary epoch, which have been so ardently pursued of late, 

 and have already afforded such satisfactory and astonishing results. 



He believed, and the fact can scarcely be disputed, that the 

 investigation of the Brixham Cavern marked what might almost 

 be termed the commencement of any really scientific investiga- 

 tions as to the conditions of priscan man and his relations to 

 a now extinct fauna. Nor can the credit be refused to Dr 

 Falconer of having been the first powcrfiilly to call attention 

 to the importance of a systematic exploration of that Cavern, 



