206 The Kent's Hole Machairodus. [April, 



bears, tigers, wolves, and foxes, and of an unknown carnivorous 

 animal, at least as large as a tiger, the genus of which has not 

 yet been determined"* 



It is perhaps worthy of note that, as the " Philosophical 

 Journal " was published quarterly, no mention of a discovery 

 made in January, 1826, could have appeared in its pages 

 earlier than in the number for April of the same year — that 

 from which the foregoing quotation has been taken. 



If any doubt exists as to the great " unknown carnivorous 

 animal " being Machairodus, it will probably be removed by 

 the following extract from a letter sent by Dr. Buckland to 

 Mr. MacEnery, and of which a copy is preserved in the 

 archives of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society ; — 



" Lyons, 14th March, 1826. 



" My dear Sir, — I should have forwarded the enclosed! 

 from Paris had I not waited to visit a spot in Auvergne, 

 where they have recently discovered a deposit of animals 

 similar to those of Kent's Cave, in a bed of diluvial sand 

 and gravel. 



" The resemblance is still more striking from the fact of 

 there being among them the teeth of your unknown animal t % 

 which turns out to be the Ursus cultridens of Cuvier, which 

 had till now been found only in the Val d'Arno. There is a 



complete skull of this bear in the collection at Florence. 



* * * * * 



I have sent the gnawed fragments you gave me to Scotland, 

 and trust that ere this opposition in that quarter will have 

 ceased." 



It cannot be doubted that the " unknown animal," which 

 turned out to be Ursus cultridens mentioned by Buckland in 

 the letter just quoted, was the " unknown carnivorous 

 animal " he spoke of in his communication to Jameson. 



It was well known that Mr. MacEnery intended to pub- 

 lish by subscription an account of his researches. A copy of 

 his prospectus, now before us, shows that it was to be 

 illustrated with thirty plates representing the objects in the 

 natural size, and that specimens of the plates had been pre- 

 pared, and were on view. At his death, however, in 1841, 

 the work had not been published, nor could his manuscript 

 be found, and the plates appear to have been lost sight of. 

 Subsequently, the manuscript was recovered, and seventeen 

 of the lithographed stones were also found. The work was 



* These italics are not in the original. 



f Letter from the Baron Cuvier to Rev. J. MacEnery. 

 % These words are not italicised in the original. 



