FELIS SPELtEA. 31 



apparently perfect specimen, which M. Pictet reproduces in his ' Paleontologie.'^ From 

 the text of the former writer wc gather that the figure was taken from a plaster cast 

 in the possession of Count MiJnster, the original having been found in a cavern in Eran- 

 conia. D'Alton^ also figures a perfect or nearly perfect skull from Muggendorf. Other 

 naturalists^ who have turned their attention to the Pleistocene Fauna describe and 

 figure fragments only of the spelaean skull ; for the species, though widely spread through 

 central and western Europe, is nowhere abundant, nor are the remains generally found in 

 a perfect state. The largest English fragment hitherto figured is that found in Kent's 

 Hole Cavern by Mr. McEnery, and drawn on a slightly reduced scale by Mr. Scharf, and 

 published by Mr. Vivian. It is also figured in a woodcut in Professor Owen's * British 

 Fossil Mammalia.' It represents only a portion of the right maxillary and intermaxillary, 

 with the dentition of an animal of the average size. 



Of the two skulls from the caverns of Mendip which we figure, the more perfect and 

 smaller lay for many years after its purchase from the Rev. D. Williams, broken and 

 unseen in a box in the Taunton Museum. The fragments were put together by the pre- 

 sent able curator, Mr. Bidgood, and the teeth were afterwards found among a quantity of 

 those of hya3na ; and thus a fair specimen of the skull of the British spelaean lion was 

 obtained. Mr. Beard, the explorer of bone-caverns in Somersetshire, on his collection of 

 bones being bought for the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, told us 

 of the presence of a skull of a lion from Hutton Cavern, among the bones some time before 

 purchased from his old rival the Rev. D. Williams. As the skull agrees in its condition 

 ' and colour with the remains from that cave, we have no hesitation in affirming that the 

 original of Pis. VI, VII, VIII, and IX, is the specimen alluded to. When Mr. Beard's 

 collection was brought to Taunton, the small pair of nearly perfect lower jaws figured in 

 PI. VI was found to correspond exactly with the skull in respect to age, size, and colour. 

 We know that it was the practice of Messrs. Williams and Beard to work at the same cave 

 at the same time, and to share the contents. In this way very frequently a fine specimen 

 was divided between them, even in the case of the long bones, — femora, humeri, and 

 the like. These, now that both collections are in the hands of the Archaeological and 

 Natural History Society, are in many cases reunited, and form perfect bones. We have 

 therefore every reason for believing that the lower jaws in Mr. Beard's collection belong 



1 'Paleontologie,' 4to, 1853 — 7, pi. vi. 



2 ' Raubthiere,' pi. \ii, fig. a, b, c, d. 



3 Leibnitz, ' Protogsea,' pi. xi ; Buckland, 'Reliquiae Diluvianae,' pp. 17, 62, 261 ; Schmerling, 'Oss. 

 foss. de Liege,' torn, ii, p. 14; Marcel de Serres, Dubreuil et Jean-Jean, 'Oss. foss. de Lunel-Viel,' pp. 

 101, 107, pi. vii, fig. 1; Rev. W. Vernon, 'Phil. Mag.,' 1829, p. 225 ; McEnery, ' Cavern Researches,' 

 edit. G. E. Vivian, Esq., 1859; Owen, 'Brit. Foss. Mam.,' p. 161; 'Rep. Brit. Assoc.,' 1842; 

 Falconer, 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond.,' vol. xvi, p. 490; Blackmore, 'Cat. of Fossils in Salisbury' 

 Museum,' p. 101; Boyd Dawkins, 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' xviii, p. 115; Ed. Lartet, ibid., vol. xvi, 

 p. 475 ; Falconer, ibid., pp. 99, 104 ; Baron Anca, ibid., p. 460. The last two notices may refer to a dis- 

 tinct species, as the animal is described merely as a large Felis. 



