CAVE DEPOSIT GIDLEY. 287 



able that bones of other animals had also found their way into this 

 deposit, but hardly possible that there was anything like such a 

 varied assemblage of animal remains as was formed at the Cumber- 

 land cave ; for here there was no natural trap or pitfall to assist in 

 their accumulation, and the bones of the Green Brier deposit seem to 

 have been dragged there by some large carnivorous animal, which in 

 Pleistocene times may have used the small cavern as a den ; or possi- 

 bly these large peccaries may themselves have occasionally sought its 

 entrance for protection or shelter. 



Among other notable discoveries in the United States of cave 

 formations containing fossil bones are the Port Kennedy cave de- 

 posits of eastern Pennsylvania x ; the Potter Creek Cave, of Shasta 

 County, California 2 ; and the "Conrad Fissure" bone deposit of 

 northern Arkansas. 3 Descriptions of these may be found by refer- 

 ring to the publications here cited. 



In the Old World, and especially in Europe, discoveries of cave 

 deposits containing bones of extinct species of animals have been 

 more frequent than in America. This is probably due, in part at 

 least, to the fact that much of the Old World is more densely popu- 

 lated and has been occupied by civilized, man for a much greater 

 period of time. Boyd Dawkins, a noted English scientist and writer 

 has given a good account of these caverns in his interesting book on 

 Cave Hunting, published by MacMillan & Co., London, in 1874. 



An especially interesting feature of the European caves is the un- 

 mistakable evidence that many of them were inhabited for long 

 periods, especially during the Pleistocene age, by large carnivores, 

 such as hyenas and bears, and these animals were doubtless re- 

 sponsible for the accumulation of bone deposits found there repre- 

 senting many other animals which they had dragged into their dens 

 for food. Many of the caves also show evidences of having been in- 

 habited by early man. A good account of these evidences has been 

 given by Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn in his book on Men of the 

 Old Stone Age. 4 



iCope and Mercer, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., (2) vol. 11, 1S87 to 1891, pp. 193-289. 



2 Sinclair, Univ. Calif. Pubs. vol. 2, No. 1, 1904, pp. 1-2T. 



3 Brown, Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist, vol. 9, pt. 4, 1908. 



4 Osborn : Men of the Old Stone Age. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1915. 



