CHAP, vii.] ROBIN HOOD AND CHURCH HOLE CAVES. 177 



jaws in the cave, ranging from cubhood to old age. 

 The victims identified by Professor Busk belong to 

 the grisly bear, wolf, common fox, bison, reindeer, 

 Irish elk, horse, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoth, to 

 which must be added the arctic fox, so abundant in 

 the Polar regions, and the glutton or wolverine, ranging 

 from the Polar regions as far south as the forests of Ger- 

 many. The arctic fox is new to Britain, although it has 

 been discovered in the caves of France, Germany, and 

 Switzerland ; and the glutton has only been previously 

 met with in the cave of Plas Heaton, near St. Asaph. 1 

 In these remains we have the materials for forming an 

 idea of the animals living in the woodlands of Yorkshire, 

 Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire. We may picture to 

 ourselves the horses, bisons, and reindeer trooping down 

 to drink, with here and there an Irish elk, or an unwieldy 

 mammoth or rhinoceros. The drinking-places were the 

 chosen haunts of packs of hyaenas, by which even large 

 and powerful creatures, such as grisly bears and rhino- 

 ceroses, were overwhelmed, and their remains carried 

 piecemeal into the dens, to be devoured at leisure. 



The Robin Hood and Church Hole Caves. 



Man is proved to have formed the central figure in 

 this very remarkable assemblage of animals, by the 

 numerous implements and articles left behind in the 

 chambers and passages of the Eobin Hood cavern, or 

 that next explored, which were filled with strata in 

 the following order : 



1 Dawkins, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. xxvii. p. 406. 



N 



