THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. X. 



No. VI. — JUNE, 1903. 



I, — Cave Hunting in Cyprus. 

 By Henry Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



FROM the days when Nimrod began to be " a mighty hunter before 

 the Lord," down to those in which our friend Fred. C. Selous 

 shot ' big game ' in Africa, the hunter has always occupied a 

 specially exalted position and enjoyed a much envied notoriety in 

 all countries. But alas for the wild animals ! they are now rapidly 

 becoming exterminated by man, and their place on the prairie, the 

 pampa, the veldt, and in the forest will soon know them no more. 



Early in the last century, that enthusiastic geologist Dean 

 Buckland invented a new sport, devoid of slaughter or destruction 

 of life, yet full of the keenest interest for the zoologist and the 

 geologist, namely, the hunting for wild animals in cave deposits. 

 The later poet of Kent's Cavern wrote : — 



" Full many a tooth with cutting edges keen 

 The virgin limestone caves of England bear ; 

 Full many a bone of elephant, I ween, 



Awaits the hunter who shall seek it there ! " 



After labouring in Kirkdale, the Mendips, the Gower Caves, and 

 those of Germany, France, and Gibraltar, Buckland published his 

 "Eeliquiee Diluvianee" in 1823. Out of more than thirteen caves he 

 records the discovery of remains of Hyaena, Tiger (Machcerodus ?) , 

 Bear, Wolf, Elephant, Ehinoceros, Hippopotamus, Wild Boar, Horse, 

 Deer, Bos, sp., Beaver, and other animals of less interest. 



Even at that early date he excited at least one enthusiastic 

 contemporary, the Eev. J. McEnery, who explored ' Kent's Hole,' 

 Torquay, and proved the contemporaneity of early man with the 

 Sabre-toothed Tiger (Machcerodiis) and other extinct animals in this 

 ossiferous deposit. But public opinion had not as yet been aroused 

 to take an interest in the question of ' the antiquity of Man,' and 

 more than thirty years elapsed before further investigations were made, 

 supported by Lyell, Busk, Schmerling, Falconer, Evans, Lubbock, 

 Pengelly, Lartet, and Christy, and later on by Boyd Dawkins, 

 Tiddeman, Hicks, Hughes, and others, down to the many workers 

 of the present day. 



DECADE IV. VOL. X. NO. VI. 16 



