1872.] 



the Exploration of Brixham Cave. 



519 



by Hyaenas in almost exactly the same manner — a condition in which 

 Mr. Boyd Dawkins informs us numerous remains of the thigh-bone of 

 Rhinoceros were found in Wokey Hole. Many of the rhinocerine bones, 

 however, presented no marks of gnawing or of being water-rolled. 



3. The equine remains include about thirty well-marked specimens, 

 indicating a species varying from 13 to 15 hands high, and indistinguish- 

 able from the existing Horse. They varied a good deal in external 

 characters, some appearing as ancient as those of the Hyaena, whilst others 

 presented, like some of those of the Bear, a far more modern aspect. 



4, 5. The bovine remains are not very numerous, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the teeth, most of them are very imperfect. They occurred chiefly 

 in the Flint-knife Gallery and West Chamber. From the size of the 

 bones and certain other characters, these bovine remains appear to have 

 belonged to more than one species, which may be provisionally regarded 

 as Bos primigenius and Bos taurus (var. longifrons) . 



6. Not more than ten or eleven specimens certainly referable to Cervus 

 elaphus appear to have been met with, and these, with three exceptions, 

 lay at an average depth of between three and four feet in the cave -earth in 

 the Reindeer and Flint-knife Galleries. The majority of the specimens 

 consisted of either the basal portion of shed horns or fragments (2) of 

 round antlers. 



7. Next to those of the Bear, the remains of the Reindeer are by far the 

 most abundant of all others in the collection. About seventy well- 

 characterized specimens have been determined. They occurred in about 

 fifty different localities in the Reindeer and Flint-knife Galleries and in 

 the West Chamber ; they occurred at a rather less depth in the Reindeer 

 than in the Flint- knife Gallery, but in both localities generally at a depth 

 of little more than two or three feet in the cave-earth. Several (five or six 

 out of thirty-five) were found lying on the surface or immediately beneath 

 it, some below and others either on or protruding through the stalagmite 

 floor. Some are incrusted with a thin, crystalline stalagmitic deposit. But 

 it is a curious circumstance that several among them, though met with in 

 different parts of the cavern and at considerable distances apart, appear to 

 be parts of the skeleton of one and the same young animal. Most of the 

 Reindeer bones, but not all, present marks of gnawing. 



8. The specimens of remains distinctly belonging to the Roebuck are not 

 more than ten or twelve in number. Some among them are gnawed, but 

 others not ; but they exhibit, perhaps more distinctly than any of the other 

 bones, indications of having lain long on the surface of the ground, and 

 exposed to atmospheric influence, before their introduction into the 

 cavern. 



9. The remains of the Cave Lion are scanty in number, but amply 

 sufficient to show that carnivora formed part of the most ancient fauna of 

 the cavern. 



