526 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



When the eye is cast over the contents of the different 

 columns, some remarkable points of contrast are observable. 

 Thus, in < Bacon Hole,' ' Minchin Hole ' and < Raven's Cliff,' 

 Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros hemitoechus occur in the two 

 first in great abundance ; while in Paviland they are sup- 

 planted by E. primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorhinus ; the 

 other associated genera and species being, as a general rule, 

 the same. It is further remarkable, that these localized 

 species do not ordinarily occur intermixed, the only well- 

 marked exception being in the case of ' Spritsail-Tor,' where 

 both E. antiquus and E. primigenius have been found. But 

 neither in Paviland nor in ' Spritsail-Tor ' was a single molar 

 or jaw fragment of Rhinoceros hemitoechus encountered, nor of 

 Rhinoceros tichorhinus in ' Bacon Hole ' or ' Minchin Hole.' 

 I passed all the Rhinoceros remains of the Gower collections 

 under a very close scrutiny, expressly with a view to the de- 

 termination of this point, and considering the abundance of 

 fossil teeth of both species, in the caverns in which they 

 respectively prevail, the contrasted distribution was very 

 strongly brought out. It should at the same time be remem- 

 bered, that 'Spritsail-Tor' fulfils the conditions hypothetically 

 put by Mr. Prestwich in the appendix, in being a cavern, 

 situated near the summit of the cliff, and probably at a higher 

 level above the sea, when marine sands were laid upon the 

 floors of ' Minchin Hole ' and ' Bacon Hole.' Detached molar 

 teeth in great abundance and other bones referable to at 

 least two species of Equus go in company with remains of 

 R. tichorhinus. They were very numerous in ' Spritsail-Tor,' 

 but rare in ' Bacon Hole.' Their prevalence in the former 

 is explicable on the supposition, which all the conditions 

 confirm, of its having been long used as a Hyaena's den : the 

 hard prismatic teeth of the horse having been rejected, when 

 the jaws that yielded them were crunched and devoured. 



The distribution of Elephas antiquus in England, and over 

 the greater extent of the European area south of the Rhine, 

 is now pretty well ascertained. I found it in very consider- 

 able abundance in the collections from the bone-caves in the 

 vicinity of Palermo, and also in some of the newer deposits 

 of the Valley of the Anapus upon the south coast of Sicily 

 near Syracuse. 1 In the environs of Rome it occurs in the 

 marine volcanic Tuffs, or volcanic gravels of Monte Verde, 

 Monte Mario, Tor di Quinto, Monte Sacro, La Magliana, 

 Ponte Molle, and other corresponding localities, in great 

 numbers. I observed in the Museum of La Sapienza, and 

 in the private collections of Professor Ponzi and Signor 

 Ceselli, of Rome, various undoubted molars of all ages of the 



1 Sec antca, p. 188.— [Ed.] 



