^7 3-1 Th e Kent's Hole Machairodus. 205 



but in deposits considerably older than those in Kent's 

 Cavern ; moreover, no indication of the genus had been 

 found in any other part of Britain. So strongly was this 

 difficulty felt by one eminent palaeontologist that he was 

 wont to express the opinion that MacEnery had obtained 

 some of the specimens found in Italy, that in his collection 

 they had got mixed with the Kent's Hole fossils, and that 

 he had incorrectly, though in perfect good faith, ascribed 

 them to his favourite cavern. Recently, however, all the 

 facts of the case have been collected and published,* 

 and no doubt now remains of the perfect correctness of 

 MacEnery's statements. They have, moreover, been con- 

 firmed by the Committee at present exploring the cavern, 

 who had the good fortune to discover there a tooth of the 

 same species. 



In this paper, which is to be devoted to the Kent's Hole 

 Machairodus, the following points will be discussed ; — 



1. The evidence that MacEnery found Machairodus in 

 the cavern. 



2nd. The remains of it which he discovered. 



3rd. Its era. 



4th. Its place in the zoological series. 



/. The Evidence that MacEnery found Machairodus in 

 Kent's Cavern. — Mac Enery states that he commenced his 

 systematic " diggings at the close of 1825," t and, as will 

 presently be shown, that he found the fossils in question in 

 January, 1826. The earliest known published mention of 

 the discovery appears in the following notice, of fossils and 

 a communication, received by Professor Jameson from 

 Dr. Buckland, printed in the " Edin. Phil. Journ." for 

 April, 18264 " Professor Buckland has lately sent to Pro- 

 fessor Jameson, for the College Museum, several specimens 

 of bone from the hyaena's den at Kent's Hole, near Torquay, 

 all of which he considers as bearing the most decided marks 

 of teeth and gnawing upon them. . . . [In the cavern.] 

 There are also album grczcum, as at Kirkdale, and stumps of 

 gnawed horns of deer, and the bony bases of horns of 

 rhinoceroses, but no horns of this animal, although more than 

 a hundred of its teeth have been already found ; also the 

 teeth of many infant elephants, numberless bones of horses, 

 elks, deer, and oxen ; and gnawed bones of hyaenas, with 

 their single teeth and tusks ; also the teeth and tusks of 



* Trans. Devon. Assoc, iii., p. 483, 494, iv., p. 467. 

 t Ibid., iii., p. 444. 

 % Vol. xiv., p. 363-4. 



