NATURE 



449 



THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 18S4 



POLISH BONE CA VES 

 The Bone Caves of Ojcow in Poland. By Prof. Dr. Ferd. 

 Romer. Translated by John Edward Lee, F. G.S., 

 F.S.A., Author of " Isca Silurum," &c., Translator of 

 Keller's " Lake Dwellings," Merk's " Kesslerloch," &c. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1S84.) 



A R.'\NGE of Oolitic hills, extending, in a north- 

 westerly direction, from Cracow in Galicia to 

 Czenstochau in Russian Poland, a distance of about 

 fifteen German miles, contains the caverns termed, as we 

 learn from the title of the work placed at the head of this 

 article, " The Bone Caves of Ojcow," from a town of that 

 name within the Russian frontier, and about three German 

 miles north of Cracow-. These caverns first attracted 

 scientific attention from the fact that their deposits, 

 worked for manure, were found to be rich in bones. Prof. 

 Romer visited them first in 1874, and, having obtained 

 funds from the Royal Prussian Ministry of Instruction, 

 and subsequently from the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Berlin, the work of investigation was begun in 1S78, and 

 carried on, at intervals, to the summer of 1882. 



The facts disclosed, with speculations respecting them, 

 were embodied in a work apparently published early in 

 1883 ; and there can be no doubt that, by preparing and 

 publishing the translation now before us, Mr. Lee has 

 added to the obligation under which his previous labours, 

 both as author and translator, have laid English readers. 

 The volume is enriched with twelve admirable plates ; a 

 charming Woodburytype frontispiece, exhibiting a mag- 

 nificent skull of Ursus spclcriis ; and a useful sketch-map 

 of the situation of the bone caves. 



The caverns investigated were nine in number ; and it 

 must be stated here that, from 1873 '° 1879, Count 

 Johann Zawisza of Warsaw had with great care carried 

 on researches in two of them — the Lower and the Upper 

 Caves of Wierszchow, to the former of which he gave the 

 name of Mami)ioth Cave. 



The following brief statements respectmg the caves 

 themselves must suffice : — 



The Cave of Jerzmanowice, about i German mile 

 w'est-south-west from Ojcow, and the largest of the series, 

 is about 230 metres long, tortuous, made up of a series of 

 small grottoes connected by narrow passages, and famous 

 as the richest of the caves in its pateontological and 

 archeeological relics. 



The Cave of Kozarnia, about '6 of a German mile west- 

 north-west from Ojcow, measured about 59 metres long, 

 had a large entrance, and was rich in remains of mammals 

 and of human industry, of which the greater part had 

 been found, and unfortunately dispersed beyond recovery, 

 before Prof. Romer' s researches began. 



Near Wierszchow, almost on the frontier of Russian 

 Poland and Galicia, rather more than i Geiman mile due 

 south from Ojcow, there are two caverns known as the 

 " Lower '' and the " Upper," the former being Count 

 Zawisza's Mammoth Cave, as already stated. The Lower 

 Cave is about 19 metres long, 13 metres wide, has two 

 narrow lateral ramifications, and is about 577 metres from 

 the Upper Cave. 



Vol. XXIX. — No. 750 



The Cave of Zbdjecka, about '2 of a German mile 

 south-west from Ojcow, is very low at the entrance, but 

 expands at once into a tolerably high arched space, 

 whence two branches are sent off; that on the right 

 being 129 metres long and 4 wide, while that on the left 

 is but short. 



The Cave of Czajowice, a short distance south of that 

 just mentioned, is about 165 metres long. Its stalagmites 

 are more considerable than those of any of the other 

 caverns, attaining in some places a foot in thickness. 



Sadlana Cave, about 'J of a German mile north-north- 

 west from Ojcow, and the most northerly of the series, 

 has four entrances, and throws off two lateral branches, 

 which, being blocked up with stones, have not been 

 examined. 



Bembel Cave, about i German mile south-west from 

 Ojcow, is of but small extent. 



Gorenice Cave, about 3 German miles west-south- 

 west from Ojcow, the most westerly of the series, and on 

 the frontier of Russian Poland and Galicia, is so very low 

 that a man can rarely stand erect in it, and has two 

 entrances about 40 metres apart. 



An oolitic floor appears to be very seldom reached in 

 any of them. They generally contain a deposit of angular 

 pieces of oolite, from an inch in diameter to the size of the 

 fist, mixed with dark brown calcareous clay, and attaining 

 in some cases a thickness of 6 or 8 feet. A few blocks of 

 oolite, some of them containing several cubic feet, are 

 occasionally met with in the deposit, and it is believed 

 that the entire mass was derived from the walls and roof. 

 In most of the caves there are horizontal layers of 

 coarsely crystalline stalagmite, varying from a few inches 

 to upwards of a foot in thickness. 



All the caverns have yielded bones, occurring sometimes 

 under the stalagmite and not unfrequently embedded within 

 it, and most of them have entirely lost their gelatinous 

 matter. An entire infra-human skeleton has never been 

 found, nor does there appear to have been anything like 

 even a distant approach to it ; indeed, except in one solitary 

 case, the two rami of every lower jaw were separated. 



Few, probably none, of the caves have received an ex- 

 haustive scientific exploration, and it is stated of most ot 

 them that they have only been very partially examined. 

 Unfortunately, as we learn from Prof. Romer, it cannot 

 be always positively stated from which bed the specimens 

 were taken ; "but," he adds, "the case is the same with 

 most of the caves which have been excavated in Germany." 

 We agree with him that this could only have been avoided 

 by carrying the work on quite slowly and with great pre- 

 caution under the continued superintendence of a scientific 

 manager, and we venture to add that such a price would 

 have been well worth paying. It must be stated, how- 

 ever, that Count Zawisza, having mainly devoted himself 

 to one of the caves, in which the daylight was available 

 for the whole work, and on which he appears to have 

 spent at least portions of seven years, was able to note 

 the exact situation of each specimen. 



The caverns yielded remains of fifty species of mam- 

 mals, twelve of birds, and two of reptiles. All the birds 

 belong to species still inhabiting the British Isles as well 

 as continental Europe, with the possible exception of 

 very scanty relics of the genera Emberisa and Hirimdo, 

 and may be dismissed with the remark tliat they are 



