Geology of the South-east of Devonshire. 445 



Cave, described by Dr. Buckland, are supposed to have been the dens of hyaenas. There can be little 

 doubt that the bones found in these caves have been collected by animals of prey, and as all the forms 

 we find in them are such as we are acquainted with at the present day, the argument from analogy is the 

 most obvious. If we take as our guide the habits of existing species of hyaenas, we find little or nothino- 

 to warrant the conclusion that they have been the active agents in conveying the cave-bones into the 

 places where we at present find them. These animals, now much better known than formerly, neither 

 hunt after living prey nor live together in packs, still less in caves * ; nor have they courage to attack 

 any formidable animal ; on the contrary; such is not the position of the genus in the natural order to 

 which it belongs ; they prefer the putrid flesh and bones of such animals as they find in their nightly 

 prowlings. The instance quoted by Dr. Buckland, on the authority of Burchell, in support of the sup- 

 position that these ancient hyaenas were hunting animals, is now well known to have rested on the false 

 classification of the Hymna venatica of Burchell f with the true hyaenas, an animal in important parts of 

 its structure related to the genus Canis, and with which it has many similar habits ; but even granting 

 that these ancient hyaenas might have acted in concert, and thus attacked such large animals as the 

 elephant and rhinoceros and subdued them, they could never have conveyed their bodies over the sur- 

 face of a rocky limestone district ; and on the authority of Knox we may assert, that they never attempt 

 to do so — whatever an hyaena meets with he devours greedily on the spot. 



Lions and panthers, on the other hand, pursue only living prey, which at one spring they lay pro- 

 strate beneath them, and securing it in their jaws, and bearing its weight on their powerful shoulders, 

 they retreat with it to their caves. Cuvier notices the extraordinary strength and rapidity of the move- 

 ments of the larger Felidse. In Asia there is no animjil which they are afraid to attack ; the African 

 lions constantly carry away oxen and animals of great bulk. With respect to their usual abodes, we 

 have the authority of all African travellers and hunters, that chasms, caves, overhanging ledges of rocks, 

 and similarly protected places are their haunts, and the spots to which they carry their prey. 



Large Felidae existed in South Devon, in other parts of England, and Northern Europe during the 

 geological period we are now considering ; their remains occur in the Oreston breccia and in Kent's 

 Cave. Dr. Buckland has figured both a canine and a molar tooth from Kirkdale. " Ces dents," says 

 Cuvier, " n'ont rien de different de celles d'un lion, raeme pour la grandeur." (Oss. Foss., 3rd edit. t. iv. 

 p. ^55.) 



I conclude, from the known habits and powers of the only ten genera we have to consider, that the 

 various animals were dragged into the caverns by powerful Felinae, who used these places as dens 

 during a long period of time ; that when the larger Carnivora had satiated their hunger or were absent, 

 the caves were visited by hyaenas (who lived then as now on the abandoned prey of others), by whom 

 the bones were picked, gnawed, splintered, and scattered. The hyaenas who frequented the caves would 

 in this manner be exposed, even more frequently than any other animals, to fall a prey, and accordingly 

 their skulls are found pierced by the canine tooth of a large animal; and in these instances their remains 

 would be devoured by their own species : that such was the case, the bones of the hyaenas sufficiently show. 

 The occurrence of human remains and works of art in Kent's Cave desei'ves some further notice, 

 such a statement being very liable either to be questioned, as at variance with a favourite theory, or to be 

 so accounted for as to present no difiSculty in the way of the theory. There is no a priori reason why 

 man and the several animals whose remains occur in caves and in gravel should not have lived here at 



* " Les hyenes se tiennent solitaires dans les parties montagneuses." — Cuv. Oss. Foss., 3rd edit. t. iv. 

 p. 387. 



f " II est evident que cette hyene [ZT. venatica'} doit former un sous-genre dans le genre des chiens, 

 qu'il liera plus intiraement a celui des hyenes." — Cuv. Oss. Foss., edit. 1825, t. iv. p. 387 ; Regne Animal, 

 vol. i. ; Swainson, Class, of Quadrupeds, p. 131. 



VOL. VI. SECOND SERIES. 3 M 



