490 OSSIFEEOUS CAVE OF BEIXHAM. 



I have designated the species provisionally Rhinoceros 

 priscus. 1 The interest of the case is enhanced by its pre- 

 sumable relations to some important late investigations of 

 Monsieur Lartet, to which I shall refer in the sequel. 



' 2nd. Abundant evidence in all the cave districts of two 

 extinct species of Elephant, viz. Elephas primigenius (Mam- 

 moth), of the Glacial period, and E. antiquus, of the Sub- 

 Apennine period (Norwich Crag and the Astesan). The for- 

 mer commonly associated in the English caves with the 

 tichorhine Rhinoceros, the latter with Rhinoceros priscus. I 

 have not observed among the cave bones any indication of 

 remains of E. (Loxodon) meridionalis, nor undoubted remains 

 of Elephas (Loxodon) priscus. 



' 3rd. In one of the caves where the evidence is tolerably 

 conclusive that the bones were washed into a fissure about 

 the same time, the following undoubted association was seen : 

 Elephas (Euelephas) antiquus, 

 Hippopotamus major, 

 Rhinoceros priscus, 

 without the admixture, so far as the collection went, of other 

 species of the same genera. 



' 4th. In other caves, Elephas primigenius and the tichorhine 

 Rhinoceros were observed, without the admixture of Elephas 

 antiquus and Rhinoceros priscus. 



' 5th. In one of the caverns the most important part of the 

 skeleton of one Elephas antiquus was found together, supply- 

 ing a desideratum of the European collections. 



' 6th. In none of the caves were any specimens observed 

 referable to the Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Cuvier, as I regard 

 that species to be limited. 



' From what I have seen, I am strongly of the conviction 

 that with our present advanced knowledge the thorough 

 investigation of a well-filled virgin cave in England would 

 materially aid in clearing up the mystery, either of the con- 

 temporaneity of the Pliocene Mammalian Fauna with the 

 commencement of the Post- Pliocene Fauna, or of the con- 

 ditions and association under which the former was replaced 

 by the latter. M. Lartet, in a late communication to the 

 French Academy, has thrown out a suggestion, the import- 

 ance of which, if well founded, can hardly be overestimated, 

 that the mixed Mammalian Fauna of the Glacial period has 

 been made up of two distinct geographical elements, the one 

 a northern division pushed southwards from Siberia and the 

 north of Europe, consisting of the Mammoth, the tichorhine 

 Rhinoceros, the Irish Elk, TJrsus spelwus, Bos primigenius, &c, 



1 Subsequently E. hemitachus, see antca, p. 3.51. — [Ep.] 



