450 



NA TURE 



\_March 13, 1884 



usually represented by a single specimen only. The 

 reptiJe remains consist of one humerus of the common 

 frog, and numerous bones of toads, the species being 

 undetermined. 



The mammalian remains include those of thirty-two 

 species familiar to explorers of British caverns. The 

 remainder belong to twelve species forming part of the 

 existing British fauna, including the domestic cat ; three 

 recent European, but not British, species, and three un- 

 determined species of the genera Capra, Ovis, and Siis. 

 0\\ the other hand, certain forms for which some British 

 caves have become famous are totally unrepresented in 

 the Ojcow list, such as Ursiis pnsciis, Gulo lusci/s, 

 Macliairodus latidens, Ccrvus megaceros, Ovibos mos- 

 chatus. Bos longi/rofis, Hippopotamus major, Elephas 

 anfiguus, Lagomys spclaus, and Castor fiber. Not a single 

 species appears to be represented by remains found in all 

 the caves, and only one— the cave bear — by those found 

 in eight of them. Twenty-t^vt) of the species — nearly one- 

 half of the entire number — are restricted to one, not the 

 same, cave. 



The remains of the cave bear were not only more 

 widely distributed in the caves, but were far more numer- 

 ous than those of any of the other mammals, especially 

 in the lower levels of the deposit. The Cave of Jerz- 

 manowice alone is believed to have yielded fully 4000 

 canine teeth of this species, representing, of course, 1000 

 individuals at least. The animals were of all ages, from 

 the sucking cub to a patriarch whose skull measured 

 about 1 9 '5 inches long and 12 inches broad across the 

 zygomatic arch. The brown bear appears to have been 

 represented by remains of one individual only, found in 

 the Ma)iimoth Cave, which also yielded bones and teeth 

 of the great pachyderm from which it was named. Relics 

 of this species wei'e disinterred in four other of the caves; 

 and it was concluded from the occurrence of numerous 

 ivory tools that mammoths must have existed in consider- 

 able numbers. The woolly rhinoceros was found only in 

 two caverns, and its remains do not appear to have been 

 abundant. The cave hyasna was apparently very httle, if 

 at all, more prevalent, as it was represented in no more 

 than three of the caves. Next to the cave bear, no 

 animal was more generally distributed than the reindeer, 

 whose relics occurred in six of the caverns — a distinction 

 also reached by the common fox. Count Zawisza's 

 researches have led him to the conclusion that the 

 distinction between an older mammoth period and a 

 more recent reindeer period, as made out from the re- 

 searches in France, will not apply to these PoHsh caves. 



The traces of man were numerous and varied, consist- 

 ing of parts of his skeleton, hearths, and implements of 

 various kinds. His bones were found in seven of the 

 caverns, and several skulls were met with in five of them ; 

 but, unfortunately, the remains of the animals lying with 

 them were not in all cases accurately noted. Some of 

 these relics were near the surface, others lay deeper, and 

 some were covered with a thick bed of stalagmite. A 

 " skeleton," pressed against the side of the Czajowice 

 Cave, was more than a metre below the surface ; and in 

 the G(5renice Cave several skulls were also found close to 

 the sides. From a report by Prof Virchow, to whom the 

 skulls have been submitted, it appears that some of them 

 are dolicocephalic, others mesocephalic ; that there is 



some doubt whether they are of the same age as the 

 deposit containing the implements of the most ancient 

 inhabitants ; and that there is no peculiarity indicating 

 any very high antiquity, nor any essential difference in 

 the forms of the skulls from those of the present inha- 

 bitants of Poland. 



The hearths, which occurred in six of the caves, were 

 in some instances one above another with a thick mass 

 of deposit between them ; and some of them contained 

 bones of ox, reindeer, mammoth, boar, and cave bear 

 mixed together, broken artificially, and blackened by fire. 



Flint implements and "cores" appear to have been 

 found in all the caves, and Count Zawisza, in his Mammoth 

 Cave alone, disinterred about 2000. The raw material 

 was no doubt obtained from the Upper Oolitic Limestone 

 of the district, in which flint nodules abound. The author 

 speaks of the tools as being "Paleolithic" in all cases, 

 but this must probably be understood as a synonym for 

 "unpolished," and not taken necessarily in a chronological 

 sense in all cases. It must be stated, however, that one 

 flint tool was found with a vertebra of the cave bear in 

 the same bed of firm crystalline stalagmite. 



Of other stone tools, two axes were met with, one in 

 each of the Wierszchow Caves : one, made of serpentine, 

 was perforated to receive a helve ; the other was of diorite. 

 They were the only polished stone tools the caverns 

 yielded. Several roundish cuboidal stones, the size of a 

 man's fist, and believed to be "corn-crushers," were 

 found. One of these also was of diorite. There were 

 also "polishing stones," or "rubbers," some of fine- 

 grained sandstone and others of black clay slate, appa- 

 rently used for finishing bone tools. 



Two glass beads, with inlaid threads of clear-coloured 

 glass, were found in the Kozarnia Cave ; and from their 

 great depth in the deposit a considerable antiquity is 

 claimed for them. It is believed they must have been of 

 foreign origin. The Zb6jecka Cave yielded three amber 

 beads, rather flat, not quite symmetrical, but smoothed. 



Of articles made of bone, there were rods artificially 

 sharpened at one end, and, in some cases, perforated at the 

 other ; a knife made of a lower tusk of boar ; a canine 

 tooth of bear artificially perforated at the lower end, a 

 stout needle having a large eye ; straight hollow bones of 

 birds, cut transversely at one end and broken at the 

 other : a straight rod of ivory sharpened at both ends, 

 and as " round as if turned in a lathe" ; perforated teeth, 

 including one of boar (ground flat on one side), wolf, fox, 

 and elk ; four imperfectly rounded and smoothed beads ; 

 and seven ivory rods, compressed and lancet-shaped, the 

 largest a foot long and i'5 inch in greatest breadth. 

 These rods were all found in one and the same bed, which 

 contained charcoal, rough flint tools, and bones of wolf, 

 polar fox, and reindeer. Long bones, broken artificially 

 lengthways, were found in great numbers, as well as pieces 

 of antlers having cut surfaces. 



One fragment of the shell of Cypraa tigris, an Indian 

 Ocean species, presented itself. It is supposed to have 

 been obtained by the Cave-men by barter. 



Pottery occurred in nearly every cave and at all levels. 

 The lowest, roughly hand-made, slightly burnt, and un- 

 glazed, included part of a pot-like vessel, so porous as to 

 render it improbable that it could have been intended to 

 contain any liquid. Among specimens of later date, and 



