Vol. 59.] 



PLIOCENE CAVERN AT DOVEHOLES. 



Ill 



be mentioned. These are the unmistakable results of the passage 

 of water from a higher level, collecting in its now the stones and 

 clay, and carrying along with it the bones and teeth of the mammalia 



into the lower chambers which 



Fig. 5. — Section of passage in 

 the cavern at Boveholes. 



[Scale : 1 inch = 20 feet,] 



it traversed. The operation is 

 still going on in all swallow- 

 holes that are now traversed 

 by a stream, as, for example, in 

 Helln Pot 1 (figs. 6 & 7, p. 112), 

 one of the many potholes round 

 Ingleborough, down which the 

 surface-drainage of the Yore- 

 dale Series is carried to depths 

 of more than 300 feet into the 

 Carboniferous Limestone. It 

 is probable that the cave A is 

 not only connected with the 

 swallow-hole c, but that the 



large blocks of limestone embedded in clay mark the line of a 

 subterranean watercourse, which has been unroofed and destroyed 

 in the general denudation of the surface. 



IY. The Fossil Mammalia. 



The remains of the fossil mammalia described in the following 

 pages are merely a few out of a large number which, according to 

 the quarry men, were discovered, and buried underneath a thick 

 accumulation of debris before their importance was recognized. 

 In the somewhat difficult task of their identification, I had the 

 benefit at the British Museum (Natural History) of the aid of 

 Dr. Smith Woodward, Dr. C. W. Andrews, and Dr. Forsyth Major, 

 to whom I am indebted for several references to Continental 

 literature. The carnivora will be considered first. 



(a) Machairodus crenatidens, Fabrini. 



The rare genus Machairodus is represented both by teeth and 

 bones. Before, however, they can be identified it will be necessary 

 to discuss the nomenclature of the Continental species. It is clear 

 from the examination of the specimens in the Natural History 

 Museum, and from the study of the essays on Machairodus pub- 

 lished by Prof. Fabrini in 1890 and by Dr. Marcellin Boule in 

 1901, 2 that the Machairodus cultridens of Cuvier was founded on 

 the mistaken association of the broad serrated canines of the 

 Machairodus aphanistus of Kaup, from the Upper Miocene of Eppels- 

 heim, with the species possessing smaller and non-serrated canines 



1 Dawkins, ' Cave-Hunting ' 1874, pp. 41, 42. 



2 Fabrini, Boll. E. Com. Geol. d'ltalia, vol. xxi (1890) pp. 121, 161, & Boule, 

 Bull. Soc. Greol. France, ser. 4, vol. i (1901) p. 551. In these essays the reader 

 will find a masterly definition of the various European species of Machairodus. 



