594 



W. BOYD DAWKINS ON THE MAMMAL-FAFNA 



at the present day *. The obtusely pointed quartzite choppers 

 would be admirably adapted for that purpose. Fragments of charcoal 

 and calcined bone show also that the game was roasted inside the 

 cave. 



C. Order Carnivora. 



Fig. 3. 



Machairodus. — The discovery of the incised drawing of a palaeo- 

 lithic Horse is rivalled in value by that of the 

 rare animal Machairodus (fig. 3) in the same 

 stratum at a short distance away. On July 3, 

 while I happened to be superintending the work, 

 one of our men dug out, before my eyes, the 

 crown of a fine upper canine quite perfect. It 

 lay about one foot below the stalagmite in the 

 cave-earth ; and in association with it were a fine 

 flint flake and remains of Bear, Woolly Rhino- 

 ceros, Reindeer, Horse, and Mammoth. 



The length of the crown measures 2*6 inches as 

 compared with specimens of the same tooth from 

 other localities ; and it is of the same broad form 

 as those from Kent's Hole and that which I ex- 

 amined in 1873 in the Museum of Lyons, which 

 was discovered at Chagny, near Dijon, in associa- 

 tion with the Horse, Beaver, Mastodon arver- 

 nensis, Ursus etruscus, Hyama antiqua (?), and 

 three species of Cervus. The base of the crown 

 measures 1*25, while the tape measurement from 

 the base of the fang to the much-worn stump of 

 the crown, is 4*2 inches. This specimen is of peculiar 

 value, because it proves that the Machairodus lati- 

 dens is a variety or species that lived in France t T Pper canine of Ma- 

 in, the Pliocene age f . Taken in connexion with 

 similar discoveries in Kent's Hole, the Creswell 

 example implies that the Machairodus was a survival from the 

 Pliocene into the Pleistocene age, like the Rhinoceros hemitoechus, the 

 Horse, and the Elephas antiquus, and into that later stage which is 

 marked by the presence of large herds of Reindeer in this country. 

 The tooth was probably introduced into the cave by the hand of 

 man, since it is broken short off by a sharp blow, and is without 

 marks of the teeth of hyaenas ; a few scratches at its base may have 

 been made by a flint flake. Its singular shape and sharp, serrated 

 cutting-edges would certainly strike the fancy of any rude huntsman 

 who might be fortunate enough to meet with the carcass or skeleton of 



chairodus, Robin- 

 Hood Cave, \. 



* Dr. Schweinfurt remarks that, on his journey to the Niam-Niam, "the halt- 

 ing-places of a former caravan were covered by heaps of broken bones." — Vol. i. 



t I take this opportunity of thanking Dr. Lortet, the Director of the Geolo- 

 gical Museum in the Palais des Beaux Arts, at Lyons, for giving me every 

 facility for working in 1873 at the fossil mammals under his care. 



