582 J. MAGEN"3 MELLO OX THE BONE-CAVES OF CRESWELL CRAGS. 



together. Flint chips and some fine flakes were found pretty gene- 

 rally distributed in the cave-earth ; but they were far outnumbered 

 by the rudely fashioned implements of quartzite. There were so 

 many of these in all stages of wear as almost to suggest a manufac- 

 tory of them. The most interesting, however, of the implements 

 found here were two of clay ironstone. It will be remembered that 

 last year an oval tool of this material was also discovered in this 

 same cave-earth. The two implements now found are somewhat 

 more leaf-shaped, one being a singularly perfect specimen, similar in 

 form to many of the well-known river-gravel types : this was got 

 from the Passage B ; the other was found in Chamber G. 



The most important of all our discoveries in the Robin Hood's 

 Cave have yet to be recorded. In the cave-earth, about the middle 

 of Chamber F, a small fragment of a bone (the rib of some animal) 

 was observed by the writer to have marks of engraving upon it. 

 These, on being brought to the light, we examined carefully ; and 

 Mr. Tiddeman, who was present at the time with Prof. Dawkins, at 

 once noticed the rude picture of the fore part of a horse exactly 

 similar to the Paleolithic figures that have been found in some of 

 the continental caves. The value of this discovery, the first of its 

 kind made in this country, need scarcely be insisted upon. But wc 

 have yet to record another discovery of as great, if not greater, 

 importance. At the far end of Chamber F, in the same cave-earth, 

 at a depth of about 1 foot, Prof. Dawkins had the good fortune to 

 see extracted, by a workman, a canine of Machairodus latidens, an 

 animal whose remains, as all will be aware, have only twice before 

 been found in England — the Rev. J. M'Enery having obtained from 

 Kent's Hole, many j-ears ago, five canines and two incisors of that 

 formidable animal, and a third incisor having been found as lately as 

 1872 in the same cavern. The discovery, therefore, of the Machairodus 

 at Creswell in the undisturbed cave-earth is one of the greatest 

 interest, which will be dwelt upon, in conjunction with all the details 

 relating to the various remains found in these caves, in the accom- 

 panying paper by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins. 



5. The Mottled Bed. — Below the cave-earth in the front part of 

 Chamber F, and also in chamber G, was a bed of earth (No. 4) mot- 

 tled with numerous small angular fragments of limestone (fig. 4). Its 

 thickness ranged from 1 to 2 feet ; and it occupied only a limited 

 part of the cavern, thinning out rapidly towards the back of Cham- 

 bor F, where it was absent (fig. 5), and dying out in a 

 similar way in Chamber G. The remains found in this bed were 

 similar in character to those of the cave-earth, teeth and bones of 

 the Pleistocene animals and quartzite implements being numerous. 



6. The Red Sand. — The lowest bone-bearing bed in the Creswell 

 caverns is one of red sandy earth (No. 5). In the Robin-Hood Cave 

 this was found uniformly distributed over the whole floor, its average 

 thickness being about 3 feet. In the large entrance (Chamber A), 

 and under the breccia in the front part of Robin Hood's Parlour, 

 there was a good deal of tough laminated red clay mingled with it. 

 giving the bed in some places quite an argillaceous character, 



