242 Dr. H. Woodicard — On Cave Hunting. 



After all that has been published upon the subject, one would 

 have expected that such investigations vpould have lost their 

 interest with geologists and naturalists, and also with the public 

 at large, but this is far from being the case. 



So lately as January last. Professor Boyd Dawkins communicated 

 to the Geological Society of London an account of the discovery in 

 1901-2 of an ossiferous cavern of Pliocene age at Doves Holes, 

 Buxton, Derbyshire, which, besides containing MacTicerodus, S^ycena, 

 Eleplias, Bhinoceros, Equus, and Cervus, yielded numerous examples 

 of Mastodon arvernensis, an animal well known from the Crag, but 

 no cave in Europe has hitherto yielded such a Pliocene fauna ! 



In September, 1898, the fresh skin of a species oi Mylodon, a ground- 

 sloth (named Neomylodon Listai), was discovered in a cavern near 

 Consuelo Cove, Last Hope Inlet, Patagonia. Other numerous dis- 

 coveries from the same cave followed, from which it appeared that 

 many examples of this great sloth had been imprisoned and fed by 

 man, and ultimately killed and eaten there by an early race of Indians, 

 who also ate the horse, the huanaco (Auchenia), the bear, puma, and 

 other animals, and left their remains, and also their own bones and 

 weapons, to testify to their presence in the cave contemporary with 

 the Mylodon. 



The long series of researches in caves and ossiferous deposits on 

 the islands and seaboard of the Mediterranean begun more than 

 fifty years ago, and continued down to the present day, by numerous 

 English and foreign geologists,^ has resulted in the accumulation of 

 most important evidence relative to the Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, 

 and Pleistocene faunas of this region, particularly those of Gibraltar, 

 Concud in Spain, Mt. Leberon in France, Olivola and the Val 

 d'Arno in Italy, the caves of Malta and Sicily, the deposits of 

 Pikermi and Euboea in Greece, Samos (Asia Minor), Maragha 

 (Persia), the Fayum (Egypt). The important discoveries of 

 vertebrate faunas in the Egyptian Tertiaries have already been 

 noticed in the pages of this Magazine.^ 



Having made previous acquaintance with cave-hunting, by the 

 exploration of a bone-cave on the Eiver Wye and the description 

 of its mammalian contents (see Geol. Mag., 1901, Dec. IV, Vol. VIII, 

 pp. 101-106, with 8 text-figures). Miss Dorothy M. A. Bate set forth 

 in the Spring of 1901 to make an exploration of the caves, said to 

 be numerous, in the long limestone range of hills forming the 

 northern border of the Island of Cyprus ; she also found similar 

 ossiferous deposits at Cape Pyla on the south-east coast. 



Early in 1902 Miss Bate sent home to Dr. C. L Forsyth Major 

 some much worn teeth about the size of a pig's molars, which 



1 "We recall the names of Professor Gaudry, Admiral Spratt, Dr. Falconer, 

 Professor Busk, Dr. Leith. Adams, Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major, Dr. Pohlig, Mr. J. H. 

 Cooke, Dr. A. S. Woodward, and Dr. C. W. Andrews. 



2 Geol. Mag., 1899, p. 481, Fossil Mammalia from Egypt; 1900, p. 1, 

 Podocnemis ^gyptiaca; p. 401, Fossil MammaUa from Egypt; 1901, pp. 400 and 

 436, Vertebrates of Egypt; 1902, p. 291, Extinct Vertebrates of Egypt; p. 433, 

 Pliocene Vertebrate Fauna of "Wadi-Natrun ; 1903, p. 225, Evolution of Proboscidea. 



