﻿INTRODUCTION. xiii 



§ 2, g. From a cave in the limestone cliffs at Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare, Mr. 

 James Parker obtained the following remains : — Human crania and bones, accompanied 

 with rude pottery and charcoal, the bones of wild cat, wolf, fox, badger, Bos longifrons, 

 and a second species ox of larger size ; the red deer, Sus scrofa, and water-rat. A large 

 percentage of these belong to young animals, and some are gnawed by dogs, wolves, or 

 foxes. This must not be confounded with the cavern at Uphill from which Messrs. 

 Beard and Williams obtained Pleistocene Mammals. 



| 2, h. The Heathery Burn Cave, in Yorkshire, explored by Mr. John Elliot, 

 yielded, besides the remains of man, those of the otter, badger, goat, roedeer, hog, and 

 water-rat. With reference to the human remains, Professor Huxley observes — " I see no 

 reason for believing them to be of older date than the river-bed skulls," i. e. those found 

 in the valley of the Trent, associated with Bos longifrons, goat, red deer, wolf, and dog. 1 



We have selected these as examples of Prehistoric caverns, and as representing the 

 fauna of the vague interval between the Pleistocene and our own times. 



§3. In the alluvia of rivers and in peat-bogs the remains of animals of Prehistoric 

 age are found in large numbers, and correspond remarkably with those of the caverns. 

 Thus, the Manea Pen, in Cambridgeshire, has yielded Ursus arctos ; the peaty mud near 

 Newbury the beaver, wild boar, roedeer, red deer, wolf, goat, horse, otter, water-rat, bear, 

 Bos longifrons, and B. primigenius ; the peat and the marly beds below of Ireland the 

 Megaceros, associated with the_Z?os longifrons, the red deer, and the reindeer [C. tarandus). 

 The peat of Hilgay, in Norfolk, has furnished the beaver and Irish elk, while that of Ross- 

 shire the traces of the reindeer, in an antler presented by Sir P. Malpas de Grey Egerton, 

 Bart., to the British Museum. The reindeer also is described by Professor Owen 2 as 

 occurring beneath a peat-moss near East Dereham, in Norfolk. The remains of Bos 

 longifrons are most universally found with red deer, roedeer, wild boars, otters, and 

 beavers. The marl underneath the peat of Scotland has also yielded the gigantic skulls 

 of the great Urus, Bos primigenius. Erom the very recent character of the osseous sub- 

 stances of these, Professor Owen infers that this animal may have maintained its ground 

 longer in Scotland that in England. 



" In the Museum of the Natural History at Newcastle is a remarkably fine shed antler 

 of the true elk, Alces malclds. It was found in Chirdon Burn, near the bottom of the 

 recent peat-formation, resting partially on the coarse gritty marl formed by the weathering 

 of the subjacent strata." 3 It measured, when perfect, from tip to tip, 2 feet 10 inches ; 

 from burr to extreme end, 2 feet 10 inches ; round the burr, 10 inches ; and round the 

 beam nearly 8 inches. The gisement of the fossil stamps it as being of the same relative 



'Geologist,' 1862. 2 Op. cit. 



* Trans, of Tyneside Naturalists Field Club,' vol. v, part ii, p. 111. Paper by Mr. Richard House, 1861; 



