84 Proceedings of the Eoyal Physical Society. 



lithic period. The evidence on this question has such wide 

 ramifications that, to treat it empirically would be to trifle 

 with a most interesting series of anatomical and archaeo- 

 logical observations which have to be considered before any 

 opinion could be formed on the subject; and for this reason 

 we have to look a little afield. 



Ossiferous caverns, from the point of view of their 

 contents, may be divided into two categories, according as 

 they show evidence of having been inhabited by man, or by 

 carnivorous animals, especially the hyaena. In those days 

 man and the hyaena had many common traits in their modus 

 Vivendi. Both were cave-dwellers. Both preyed on the 

 animal world around them, and when successful in the chase 

 they carried the carcass, or, if too large, portions of it, into 

 their respective retreats. Both were fond of juicy bones, 

 and, to secure the marrow, they broke them. But although 

 they had common objects, their methods of procedure were 

 very different. The hyaena broke bones with his powerful 

 jaws and teeth, and consumed all the spongy and carti- 

 laginous portions, leaving nothing but marrowless fragments. 

 One feature in the process is of some interest, viz., that in 

 gnawing certain bones they were always treated by this 

 carnivore in a uniform manner. Dr Buckland has shown 

 that the residuary part of the lower extremity of the tibia of 

 an ox, given to a Cape hyaena in Womb well's menagerie, in 

 1822, was precisely similar to portions of the corresponding 

 bones found in Kirkdale Cave ("Reliquiae Diluvianae," 

 pi. xxiii.). On the other hand, man broke bones also in a 

 uniform manner by means of stone implements, which 

 implements are often found among the debris. Human 

 occupancy can thus be distinguished, not only by the pre- 

 sence of the stone hammers and the manner in which the 

 bones were broken, but by the fact that the general refuse 

 heap often contained some of the weapons used in the chase; 

 the tools by which these weapons were manufactured ; the 

 remains of the hearths at which the troglodytes cooked their 

 food, and around which they practised their marvellous art 

 instincts, etc. The human hunter, when he had to deal 

 with big game, cut up the carcass by detaching the limbs, 

 head, and sometimes a portion of the body ; and these he 



