596 5 The American Naturalist. [June, 
factory, is worthy of closer attention. In any case, the evidence from 
glacial deposits of the existence of paleolithic man in America is not 
yet very considerable. 
If we turn to the caves, we have, at least, the opportunity in this 
country of demonstrating the existence or non-existence of Cave 
Dwellers. Between 1868 and 1871, I explored the contents of three 
ossiferous caves; one in Tennesee, one in. Virginia, and one in Penn- 
sylvania. No report was made on the contents of the first, as the 
material was sent to a museum in Philadelphia and was never seen 
after. Reports® on the other two were published. All of these caves 
are situated south of the terminal moraine of Lewis and Wright. A 
report on the contents of Hartman’s Cave in Northampton Co., 
Pennsylvania, within the line of the terminal moraine, was made’ by 
Professor Leidy in 1887. These investigations brought to light 
the existence of a definite fauna, which I have called the Megalonyx 
fauna, and which is the last of the extinct faunas of North America. 
It includes the extinct genera of Mammalia, Platygonus, Smilodon, 
Megalonyx, Mylodon, Mastodon, and extinct species of Bos, Dicotyles, 
Equus, Tapirus, Ursus, Castor, Arvicola and Lagomys. Teeth and 
other fragments are found which are not distinguishable from the fol- 
lowing spécies now existing in the country ; Cervus virginianus, Canis 
lupus, Ursus aretos, Vulpes virginianus, Procyon lotor, Didelphys 
virginianus, Lepus sylvaticus, Arctomys monax, Castor fiber. These re- 
mains are enclosed in a red calcareous clay, which, when dry, forms a 
matrix of moderate hardness, similar to that observed in the bone caves 
of Europe and Asia. 
It may be here remarked that the bone caves of the world so far as 
explored, present us with an oldest fauna of about the same age. 
They nowhere include fossil remains of animals of an age prior to the 
Plistocene. This I have had occasion to verify on specimens brought 
from the caves of Mount Carmel, Syria by Sir William Dawson, as well 
ason the American material already mentioned, and as has been long 
since shown with regard to the caves in Europe. And this in spite of 
the fact that bone caves exist in all limestone formations from the Cam- 
brian upwards, and have doubtless commenced their formation so soon 
as the respective limestones were sufficiently elevated to be subject to 
the soluble and erosive effect of water flowing in its fissures. The 
plain inference is that all those parts of the caves which represent this 
ê Proceeds. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1869, p. 171. Ibid., 1871, p. 73. 
7 Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, 1887, p. 1. 
