PLEISTOCENE CAVE-DEPOSITS. 95 



sence of Palaeolithic man, who seems now and then to have driven 

 out the hyaenas, and occupied their den. A number of rudely- 

 chipped flint and chert implements, and two bone arrow-heads, 

 were found, and ashes and carbonised bones indicated the place 

 where fires had been kindled and food cooked. " One fragment 

 of bone in particular, belonging to the rhinoceros, had been 

 calcined, and its carbonised condition bore unmistakable testi- 

 mony that it had been burnt while the animal juices were 

 present." During the alternate occupation of Wookey Hole by 

 man and hyaenas there appear to have been recurrent floods, 

 which deposited mud upon the floor, and eventually completely 

 blocked up the cave. 



It must not be supposed that all the bones in ossiferous caves 

 have been introduced by man and wild beasts. In very many • 

 cases they have been washed in by water, and often enough 

 some of the animals that roamed our country in Pleistocene 

 times fell victims to natural pitfalls. For it must be remem- 

 bered that subterranean galleries frequently communicate, by 

 means of narrow crevices, pipes, and swallow -holes, with the 

 surface, and in a country the rocks of which are largely calcare- 

 ous such pitfalls are a fruitful source of loss to unfortunate 

 cattle-owners in our own day. That many animals may have 

 been trapped, as it were, in this way we may well believe, and 

 the appearances presented by their remains is sometimes highly 

 suggestive of such a fate. But as the subterranean cavities into 

 which they fell were often swept either intermittently or conti- 

 nuously by engulphed streams, it is not surprising that entire 

 skeletons are but seldom met with, and that ossiferous accumu- 

 lations in such cavities as could hardly ever have been occupied 

 either by man or beast usually consist of a pell-mell and 

 tumultuous dSris of earth, stones, and bones, many of which 

 show traces of having been rolled about. It is by no means 

 necessary to suppose, however, that all these have been introduced 

 through natural pitfalls. It is a well-known fact that when 

 beasts are sickly they often repair to streams to quench their 

 thirst, and of course they often die there. Thus their bodies 



