476 Kents Hole. 



den was inhabited. The hyaenas were the normal occu- 

 pants of the cave, and thither they brought their prey. 

 We can realise these animals pursuing elephants and 

 rhinoceroses along the slopes of the Mendip till they 

 scared them into the precipitous ravine, or watching 

 until the strength of a disabled bear or lion ebbed 

 away sufficiently to allow of its being overcome by their 

 cowardly strength. Man appeared from time to time 

 upon the scene a miserable savage armed with bow 

 and spear, unacquainted with metals, but defended 

 from the cold by coats of skin. Sometimes he took 

 possession of the den and drove out the hyaenas for it 

 is impossible for both to have lived in the same cave 

 at the same time. He kindled his fires at the entrance 

 to cook his food and to keep away the wild animals ; 

 then he went away, and the hyaenas came back to their 

 old abode.' 



Kent's Hole, near Torquay, in Devonshire, has long 

 been one of the most famous caverns in England. Mr. 

 Pengelly, F,R.S., has given an extensive account of the 

 'Literature of Kent's Cavern' in the 'Transactions of the 

 Devonshire Association,' from which it appears that Mr. 

 Thomas Northrnore of Exeter first dug through the 

 stalagmitic covering, and ' exclaiming with joy, " Here 

 it is ! " pulled out an old worn-down tusk of a Hyaena, 

 and soon afterwards a metatarsal bone of the Cavern- 

 Bear,' and among twenty or thirty other teeth and 

 bones ' were two jaws, upper and lower, of either the 

 Wolf or the Fox,' In 1827, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry 

 De la Beche mentions the cavern as ' celebrated on 

 account of the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, 

 hyaenas, bears, deer, wolves, &c.,' and specially connects 

 this discovery with the name of the Rev. John McEnery, 

 who had previously made a valuable collection of such 



