122 Observations on the Geological Age of Bone- Caverns. 



of such animals as the Hare and Rabbit; whilst the Bat, 

 Mouse, and Vole may have been at some other time not un- 

 willing tenants of the same caves. But even assigning to all 

 the same antiquity, for reasons given above, it is not surprising 

 that these should be found only in caverns. The Eqiais pli- 

 cidens and Slro7igi/loceros, perhaps the only animals whose 

 sole existence in caverns is difficult to account for, may yet 

 find their representatives in sedimentary deposits: the latter 

 is so uncommon that but one specimen has been met with, and 

 that in Kent's Hole, and at llford remains of gigantic deer, 

 too fragmentary to declare their affinities, are frequently 

 found. « 



The remains peculiar to freshwater strata are such as might 

 be expected to appear there. The Monkey would be an un- 

 likely prey to Tigers and Hyjenas ; and the Water-Mole, 

 Castor and gigantic Trogontherium, from their amphibious 

 and wary habits, would rarely become the prey of land Car- 

 nivora; and if preserved at all, would mix with deposits con- 

 tinually going on from the element in which the greater part 

 of their lives was passed. The occurrence oi Rhinoceros lep- 

 torhimis exclusively in these formations does not appear so 

 remarkable, when it is recollected that the genus itself is com- 

 paratively rare in caverns; and some peculiarity may have 

 existed in this species, rendering it less liable than the other 

 to become the prey of carnivorous contemporaries: and it is 

 well-known that several living species, differing less from each 

 other than the extinct ones did, have very diftierent habits. 



It must not be forgotten, that future discoveries may con- 

 siderably alter inferences derived fiom our present knowledge 

 on this subject. It is impossible to predict what may hereafter 

 be revealed by chance or the labours of the geologist; and 

 each year brings with it an increase to the number of fossil 

 mammalia. But as the matter remains at present, there is 

 nothing against the possibility, whilst many things tend to 

 make it highly probable, that animals from the newer tertiary 

 deposits were the contemporaries of those found in caverns; 

 and that whilst the Mammoth and Rhinoceros, from their 

 powers of defence, enjoyed a comparative immunity from 

 attack, and left their bones in the slowly-forming aqueous 

 strata, their younger and weaker associates frequently became 

 victims to the appetites of fierce Carnivora, and were finally 

 •carried to the dens of Hytenas. 



4 BoUon Street, Piccadilly, 

 December 1847. 



