had it all to themselves during the deposition of the 

 breccia, which, was derived from without in a com- 

 paratively short time. During this period it was occa- 

 sionally visited by man. Afterwards the cave earth 

 was deposited in small instalments, with protracted in- 

 termittances occupyiog a very long period. "When the 

 hyamas made their appearance in Britain, they evidently 

 took a fancy to tho same quarters, and, undoubtedly, 

 dragged in many of the herbivorous animals for food, 

 as their gnawed and split bones testify. Many of 

 these were found at every level, invested with thin films 

 of stalagmite from lime drip. This process was inter- 

 rupted when the objects were buried by a further in- 

 stalment of cave earth, and the same phenomena were 

 repeated again and again. Many flint implements, with 

 their keen edges unbroken, prove that the accumulation 

 of the cave earth was quietly accomplished. There is 

 also plenty of evidence that man occasionally drove out 

 the hysenas, cooked his food, and fashioned his flint 

 implements in this all sheltering abode. 



Before proceeding to refer in detail to the anatomical 

 characters of the sixteen species before you, which Mr 

 Feist, Museum Assistant, has labelled with his usual 

 neatness, I wish particularly to thank Mr William 

 Davies, F.G.S., of the British Museum, for assistance 

 kindly rendered, and your Secretary, MrLomax, F.L.S., 

 for the well-execiited diagram, after Steenstrup, he has 

 been so good as to enlarge for me in illustration of 

 some further osteological features relating to the 

 animal remains 'of Kent's Hole. In conclusion, I 

 would refer to the pleasure and advantages that 

 students, and those working up provincial museums, 

 may derive from consulting the unrivalled osteological 

 collection at the Koyal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's- 

 Inn-Fields, and the magnificent Natural History 

 Galleries of our' New National Museum, at South 

 Kensington. 



Mr Crane then exhibited the various specimens ; 

 including hyenas' teeth and jaws, bears' teeth, an 

 astralagus and a metatarsal of a young grizzly bear, a 

 hare's tibia and fibula, incisor teeth of the beaver, a 

 horse's foot and teeth, a fox's jaw, the femur of a wolf, 

 the humerus of a badger, the ulna and humerus of a 

 rhinoceros, a metatarsal and radius of Bos primigenius, 

 a reindeer's humerus and others. All these, he said, 

 came to the Museum unclassified and unnamed ; and 

 whilst pointing out the varied characteristics of the speci- 

 mens, he explained how he had been able to accurately 

 determine the nature of almost every bone. Those of 

 the Bos primigenius he compared with the bones of an 

 ox he had brought for the purpose ; whilst he pointed 

 out how a small protuberance on another bone had 

 enabled him to determine by means of comparison that it 

 was the bone of a hare, about three partB grown. After 

 studying many of the other specimens, some of them 

 mere fragments, and arriving at a conclusion as to the 

 animals to which they had belonged, he had, he said, 

 taken them to the Koyal College of Surgeons, and 

 compared them with the skeletons there, and thus 

 demonstrated the accuracy of his decisions. As every 

 bone in these skeletons is numbered, Mr Crane 

 offered to entrust any specimen to a member of the 

 Society, and acquaint him with the number of the 

 bone, in order that he might compare it as he himself 

 had done. Whilst adverting to the difficulties which 

 presented theibselves'in determining to what animal 

 the bone belonged, he provoked some amusement 

 by narrating how he had been puzzled by study- 

 ing the uncut milk molar of a rhinoceros upside 

 down. On reversing it, it at once become appa- 

 rent what the specimen was. In answer to a question, 



