6G MR. W. STORES FOX ON BONES [Jan. [6, 



half a mile below the source of the river Lathkil. It is 800 ft. 

 above sea-level, and takes the form of a narrow passage, running 

 almost due east and west, in the Carboniferous Limestone. It 

 possesses two entrances. The lower one is almost square in 

 section, measuring 2 feet 8 inches across and 2 feet 9 inches high. 

 By crawling through this, and along a passage of similar dimensions, 

 for a distance of 6| feet, a dome-shaped chamber is reached 9 feet 

 in height and 4 or 5 feet in diameter. It is into the side of this 

 chambei- that the second entrance opens, at abovit 5 feet above 

 the floor. This second or upper entrance, almost a perfect oval 

 in shape, is 2 feet 10 inches high and 1 foot 8 inches wide. 



For the next 18 feet the cave consists of a passage averaging 

 3 feet high and 3 feet wide ; it then widens out into a chamber 

 6 feet long and nearly 6 feet wide. It was in this chamber that 

 the bones were found. Beyond this chamber the passage rapidly 

 nai'i'ows to an impassable fissure. 



In March 1894 I was informed that Lynx-bones had been 

 found in the cave ; but it was not until the spring of 1897 that I 

 asked and obtained leave to excavate. In the chamber, or den, 

 a thin layer of stalagmite was found. First, all the earth — mixed 

 with bones and stones — lying above the stalagmite was removed ; 

 then the layer itself was blasted, and all that had been sealed up 

 by it was cleared away. Bvit, unfortunately, no notes were taken 

 as the work proceeded, so that it is impossible to say now whether 

 any bones were found beneath the stalagmite. As the contents of 

 the cave were dug out, they were cariied to a neighbouring spring 

 arid were there carefully washed in a one-eighth-inch sieve ; and 

 in this way even very small bones were secured. 



Both Professor Boyd Dawkins, in his account of the Pleasley * 

 Lynx, and Mr. William Davies, when describing the bones from 

 Teesdale t, used for comparison the skeleton of the Northern 

 Lynx in the British Museum (1230 a). Accordingly, the Cales 

 Dale bones have been compared with the same skeleton. 



Of jaw-bones and teeth Cales Dale has produced : — a right ramus 

 of the lowei- jaw (text-fig. 26 B) ; the right upper carnassial tooth, 

 imbedded in a fragment of the maxilla (text-fig. 26 A) ; the right 

 premaxilla containing its three incisors ; and three canines. The 

 ramus is incomplete, most of the bone behind the molar tooth 

 being absent ; and the upper part of the socket for the canine is 



* ' British Pleistocene Maiminalia/ part iii. pp. 172-176 (PalEeontograpliical Societ3', 

 volume for 1868). 

 t ' Geological Magazine,' volume for 1880, pp. 346-348. 



Explanation of Text-fig. 26 (opposite). 



Remains of Felis lynx from Cales Dale, Derbyshire. 



A, A'. Right upper carnassial tooth, outer and lower verivs, p. 68. 



15. Right mandibular ramus, inner view, p. 68. 

 C, C. Axis vertebra, left lateral and lower veiws, p. 69. 



D. Left OS innominatum, outer view, p. 70. 

 E,"E'. Proximal end of left femur, posterior and anterior views, p. 70. 

 A-C. nat. si/e; D, E, two-thirds nat. size. 



