Revleivs — C. Merit on the Kesslerloch Cave, 165 



and a tusk were found in the black bed, together with many frag- 

 ments of tusk. The tusk was only 2| inches below the black band, 

 and is 53 inches long, and weighs 42 pounds ; but owing to its fria- 

 bility (and probably to a want of knowledge of the process of gela- 

 tinizing such relics), it fell to pieces. 



The Cave of Kesslerloch also furnished some fragmentary remains 

 of Bhinoceros^ tichorhinus, probably an old animal; 17 Wolves, 80 

 Foxes, 1 Wild Cat, 4 Lynxes ; some fragmentary remains of the 

 Cave-lion {Felis spelcea), 4: Gluttons, 2. or 3 Bears (Ursus arctos), 

 1 Marmot, and more than 500 Alpine Hares which had been eaten 

 in this cave. About 80 Ptarmigan, a wild Goose, a wild Swan, 

 the Raven, a Sea Eagle, etc., make up the bill of fare of these old 

 Cave-folks. 



Although the weapons agree in character with those of the Belgian 

 and French caves (see Plate V.), and the incised drawings of 

 animals are not a new discovery in these prehistoric retreats, yet, 

 nevertheless^ we fully agree with the translator (Mr. J. E, Lee) in 

 the opinion that the dwellers in the Kesslerloch Cave had attained to 

 a degree of excellence in their engraving of animals superior to that 

 of the dwellers in Aquitania. 



In support of this view, we would refer our readers to the life- 

 like representation of a Reindeer found in this Cave engraved upon 

 a portion of the beam^ of a horn of that species, which we repro- 

 duced in the Geological Ma&azine for December, 1875, PI. XV. 

 p. 610. We cannot help placing this example in the first class 

 among prehistoric engravings. As to the two doubtful drawings 

 from this Cave (given on pi. xv. figs. 98 and 99), we should feel 

 much hesitation in vouching for their genuineness, and cannot but 

 recall the familiar Benard of our fable-book, and the equally friendly 

 face of Bruin in search of honey, or performing in our market-place. 



Mr. Conrad Merk deserves the highest praise for his work. The 

 Cave is one of no small interest, as bringing together the Reindeer 

 and Mammoth Periods, and showing, as we have elsewhere main- 

 tained, that there were no hardly-defined boundaries between any of 

 these, but that just as the Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the Bronze, and 

 the Iron ages shaded into each other, or existed side by side, so the 

 periods of the Mammoth, of the Reindeer, and of the modern Fauna, 

 have passed imperceptibly, and by slow gradations, over Western 

 Europe, some forms dying out, as the Mammoth and Rhinoceros ; 

 others migrating north, as the Reindeer ^ others again passing slowly 

 under the domination of man, as the Horse and the Ox ; whilst the 

 Bison and Red Beer are gradually becoming exterminated by the 

 descendants of Nimrod, whose weapons are a thousand times more 

 deadly than those of the hunters of the Kesslerloch. 



EXPLAN^ATION OF PLATE V. 



(This is " Plate VII." in Mr. Lee's English. Edition.) 

 Articles of ornament and weapons of the chase from the Cave of the Kesslerloch, 



near Thayngen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland : 



Fig. 29. — Ornamental scraper (see p. 40 of Mr. Lee's book). 

 „ 30. — Ornamented spear-head (p. 37, op. cit.). 



