Mammalia found in Caves. 



Nature of 

 Deposits. 



Human Re- 

 mains in 

 Caves. 



"Wall-case, 

 No. 1, Pier- 

 case, No. 2. 

 Table-case, 

 No. 1 (South 

 side). 



Marsh discovered in the " Laramie " formation in strata 

 of Cretaceous age, in Dakota and "Wyoming Territory, N. 

 America, numerous remains of small mammals having close 

 affinities with those previously known and described from strata 

 of Triassic and Jurassic age. (For drawings, see small Table- 

 case, No. 14a, in S.E. Pavilion.) 



Most of the mammalia found fossil are extinct, but a very 

 large number belong to forms closely related to, or even identical 

 with, existing* terrestrial species — such as the lion and tiger, 

 the dog, wolf, the seal, the bear, and hyaena ; the rhinoceros, 

 horse, elephant, hippopotamus, pig, giraffe, camel, deer, ox, 

 sheep ; the beaver, marmot, hare ; the whale, etc. 



The deposits which have yielded the largest proportion of 

 these remains are met with in caves and fissures in limestone 

 rocks ; in old lake and river valley-basins, filled up with 

 gravels, sands, loess clays, and brick-earth washed down from 

 the higher lands by rain and rivers ; shell-marls, and peat- 

 deposits ; ancient forest-beds, which have been covered up 

 and submerged ; and delta deposits formed in the estuaries of 

 great rivers, such as the Thames, the Severn, the "Rhine, the 

 Nile, the Ganges, the Mississippi, the Amazon, and La Plata. 

 The frozen soil of the great alluvial plains bordering the 

 Arctic sea both in the Old and New World is also rich in 

 remains of large herbivorous animals, such as the "Mammoth" 

 and the ' "Woolly Rhinoceros," that once inhabited these high 

 northern latitudes before the climate became too damp, or too 

 cold for the growth of forest trees. 



All over the world caves are to be met with, hollowed out by 

 underground waters in wearing* their way through limestone 

 rocks. Examples of the animal remains found in some of these 

 may be seen in the Wall and Table-cases. As these caves have fre- 

 quently served in prehistoric times as habitations for Primitive 

 Man, when he lived by hunting and fishing*, we frequently meet 

 with evidence of human occupation, as the charcoal and ashes 

 of fires, — the burnt and broken fragments of the bones of 

 animals upon which he subsisted. — the rude implements of 

 stone and bone Avhich served as his weapons in the chase, or for 

 domestic purposes, and even — but more rarely — rudely incised 

 figures of the animals which he saw and hunted, and the cherished 

 ornaments of shell or bone which he had laboured to make for 

 the decoration of his person. 



It often happens that the same cave has served at different 

 periods as a refuge for man and for various wild beasts, 

 as for instance, the cave-lion, bear, or hyaena. Examples of 

 remains of these animals, and of the gnawed bones of their 

 prey, may be seen from Oreston, Brixham, and Kent's Cavern, 

 Devonshire ; from Dui'dham Down and Pen Park Cave, West- 

 bury, Gloucestershire ; Banwell, Hutton, and Wookev-Hole 



