12 itEPOii'f — 1875. 



39 " finds " of remains of Mammals were met with in the Alcove, iueludirg 

 59 teeth of Bear (several of the rain portions of jaws), 16 of Fox (all of them 

 in portions of three lower jaws), 4 of Hytena, numerous bones (including 

 several good specimens, though all of them were more or less fragmentary), 

 and 1 coprolite. The teeth of Hyoena, 2 of the jaws of Fox, and the coprolile 

 were met with at the junction of the northern compartment and the Cave of 

 Inscriptions, amongst fallen masses of limestone, where neither the character 

 of the deposits nor the exact position of the spccmiens could he determined. 

 The remaining jaw of Fox, however (No. GG19), was found in the Breccia ; 

 it was broken into two pieces, which lay together and contained 5 teeth. 

 This specimen, the only known relic of the genus in this old deposit, was 

 found at the iinicr or eastern end of the southern compartment, in the 

 second foot-level of Breccia, with remains of Bear, 17th July, 1875. It may 

 not be out of place to remark that remains of the Common Fox (Canis vulpes) 

 have been identified among the Mammalian relics from the Forest-bed under- 

 lying the Boulder-clay on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk *. 



In proportion to the volume of the deposit it contained, the Alcove was far 

 richer in osseous remains than any part of the Cave of Inscriptions, of which 

 it is an adjunct. It is worthy of mention, perhaps, that it contained no 

 trace of flint or chert. 



Tlie Great Oven.- — The passage or tunnel opening out of the south-west 

 corner of the Cave of Inscriptions is very long and narrow, and so low that 

 a considerable portion of it can only be traversed on all-fours or in a crouching 

 posture. It connects the Cave of Inscriptions with the "Bear's Den," which 

 the Committee have not yet explored, and has been termed the " Oven," 

 partly from its very contracted breadth and height, but mainly because a 

 vertical section of a considerable part of it at right angles to its length 

 closely resembles the small earthenware ovens much used formerly in the 

 two sotith-western counties. It has received the epithet Great to distinguish 

 it from a similar but still more contracted tunnel in another part of the 

 Cavern, and known as the " Little Oven." 



The excavation of the Great Oven was begun 27th July, 1875, and at the. 

 end of that month, beyond which this Eeport does not extend, it had been 

 completed to 4 ftct from the entrance. Like the Cave of Inscriptions, it 

 contains a thin layer of Cave-earth, with Breccia beneath it of unknown 

 depth. Two " finds " have been met with in the former, containing 1 tooth 

 of Hysena and a few bones ; and 9 in the latter, including 6 teeth of Bear 

 and several pieces of bone. 



On studying the osseous remains found by the Committee in the Breccia 

 in the various branches of the Cavern they have explored during the last 

 twelve months, the following prominent facts arrest attention : — Some of the 

 teeth of Bear are those of very old animals, and worn almost to the fang, 

 such as No. 6597 from the second foot-level, No. 6608 from the second foot- 

 level. No. Gull from the fourth foot-level, and No. 6618 from the second 

 foot-level, all found in the southern compartment of the Alcove during July 

 1875. The jaws, though frequently broken, have never lost their lower 

 borders, as is almost uniformly the case with the Cave-earth specimens ; 

 and none of the bones appear to have been gnawed. In no instance were 

 the bones foitnd lying in their anatomical relations, but different parts of 



* See ' Cave Hunting.' By W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S., F.S.A. 1871, 

 p. 418. 



