164 Reviews — C. Merk on the Kesslerloch Cave, 



mixed with disintegrated rock and surface rubbish. It was neces- 

 sary to remove 4,300 cubic feet of this uppermost layer, or about 

 170 tons. Beneath this rubbish -bed a layer of Stalagmite was met 

 with, from 12 to 20 inches in thickness. The Stalagmite was so 

 hard that it had to be blasted with gunpowder in order to remove it. 



Numbers of bones and a few flint flakes were found adhering to 

 the underside of the Stalagmite floor. Beneath the Stalagmite and 

 rubbish-layer followed the relic-bed, a layer of black earth made up 

 chiefly of a mass of fragments of bones of various animals, together 

 with hearth-stuff, flint flakes, and the remains of weapons and orna- 

 ment-s in bone and horn, so characteristic of the Cave-folk of the 

 Eeindeer Period. This bed was found to be 15 inches thick in 

 front of the Gave, in centre 11 inches, and at the back part only 

 4 inches. This bed also extends considerably in front of the Cave 

 deep down under the present surface, marking the waste of the lime- 

 stone and the rate of accumulation of dehris outside the Cave. 



Below the black relic-bed, and extending over the whole floor of 

 the Cave, another bed was met with coloured red with peroxide of 

 iron, and also containing bones and implements in a matrix of com- 

 minuted limestone. This bed varied in thickness from 14 to 2^ 

 inches. Beneath the red bed was a regular bed of j^ellow loam, the 

 depth of which has not been fully ascertained. No implements or 

 bones were discovered in this bed, although some few bones and 

 implements, and also some flint flakes, lay pressed into it, proving 

 that, in this case, man was the first occupier of the Cave. 



Each layer was carefully removed by Mr. Merk, and its contents 

 kept perfectly distinct from the other, and submitted to Professor 

 Eiitimeyer ; but although differing markedly in colour and condition, 

 the bones from the two layers do not prove in any way distinct. 

 We have, then, in this Cave hut one period represented, although 

 it was a place of lengthened occupation. The cubical contents of 

 the red and black layers removed amounted to nearly 3,530 cubic 

 feet. About one ton and a half weight of bones was extracted from 

 the cave-earth. Every bone which contained marrow had, as usual, 

 been broken in pieces ; indeed, no entire bones of any kind appear 

 to have been met with. At least 90 per cent, of the bones found 

 belonged to the Eeindeer ; they afford evidence of about 200 adult 

 Eeindeer and 50 young ones slaughtered for food by this one Cave- 

 family. Eemains of about twenty Horses, of six great Eed Deer, 

 probably as large as the Wapiti (Cervus Canadensis), were also found, 

 together with fragmentary evidence of jBos primigenius, of Bison 

 priscus, and two phalangeal bones referred to the " Marsh-Cow " 

 (similar to that met with in the Swiss lake-dwellings). With these 

 have also been found the Ibex and Chamois. A considerable number 

 of bones of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius) have been found, 

 including several portions of skulls and various bones of young 

 animals of different ages, phalanges of adult elephants and a large 

 number of broken fragments of great bones. Most of these Mammoth- 

 bones come from the lower (red) relic-hed, some resting immediately 

 on the clay, and some were coated with stalagmite. But two molars 



