524 



OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



years, were discovered embedded in the sand. 1 The cave 

 loam yielded a prodigious quantity of the remains of two or 

 more species of Arvicola, and other minute Mammalia. 

 Among the rodents in this case I observed that lower jaws 

 predominated very largely in number over crania and upper 

 jaws, in the ejected materials which strewed the face of the 

 talus below the aperture, and which still remained after ten 

 years of exposure to the weather. The exact elevation of 

 Spritsail-Tor above highwater mark has not yet been pre- 

 cisely ascertained. No trace of marine sand or gravel was 

 detected. The absence of arenaceous deposits below the 

 stalagmitic floor is not a little remarkable, considering how 

 liable the chauibers are to be filled with sand at the present 

 day ; and the circumstance indicates a very considerable 

 change in the physical conditions around the cavern since 

 the date when the stalagmitic flooring was formed. Although 

 molar teeth of R. tichorhinus are abundant in ' Paviland ' 

 and ' Spritsail-Tor,' no remains attributable to.R. hemitoechus 

 were identified among the contents of either cave. One very 

 finely preserved upper molar of Elephas anliquus was ex- 

 humed from the cave loam of Spritsail-Tor, together with 

 some milk molars of the same species. It is worthy of 

 remark, that the molars of E. primigenius, from the same 

 cavern, the distinctive characters of which are strongly 

 pronounced, commonly present a much fresher appearance 

 with more animal matter retained in them. 



15. General Remarks on the Distp.ibittion of the 

 Mammalia in the different Caverns. 



This concludes the description of the ossiferous caves. I 

 append a tabular statement showing the genera and species 

 of Mammalia which have been discovered in them. The list 

 is remarkable for the great numerical richness of the species. 

 With the exception of the Drepanodon (Machairodus) of Kent's 

 Hole, it includes all the larger-sized carnivorous and her- 

 bivorous species that have been met with throughout the 

 caves in England, while two of the species, namely Elephas 

 antiquus and Rhinoceros hemitoechus, have not been heretofore 

 described as occurring in any of them. Of the smaller-sized 

 genera, it contains representatives of every one, with the ex- 

 ception of the Lagomys of the South Devonshire caverns, 

 and of Spermophilus, the presence of which I have lately 

 ascertained in the collections from the caves in the Mendip 

 hills. The latter had not been known before as occurring 

 in the Fossil Fauna of Britain. 2 



' On the authority of Mr. A. Pytts 

 Falconer and Colonel Wood, who in- 

 form me that the bones were thus iden- 



tified by Professor Owen when sent to 

 the Royal College of Surgeons. 

 2 See antca, p. 452. 



