39 



THE EXTINCT ANIMALS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



JOHN WATSON, 

 Fer}L Leigh, Kciuial. 



It need hardly be said that the fauna of the Lake counties of Cum- 

 berland and Westmoreland was not always so unimportant as it is 

 to-day; and a series of recent explorations in the mountain limestone 

 has yielded the best of all evidence — the actual remains of the 

 animals themselves. Nothing has been written on the subject of 

 bone-caves having reference to the area indicated, and it is proposed 

 now to shortly sketch the progress that has been already made. The 

 following notes have reference to the Arnside Cave, to a fissure on 

 Whitbarrow Scaur, to a second fissure at Helsfell, to a third in Long 

 Sleddale, to excavations at Silloth, to Ressondale, and to numerous 

 mosses and other places where animal remains have been found. As 

 the subject of cave exploration opens up such a wide field, even 

 when conducted over a limited area, these remarks will be restricted 

 exclusively to those animals which (with the exception of man) have 

 become extinct within historic times. At one or other of the places 

 indicated, the remains of the following animals have been found : — 

 Man, Bear (2 species), Wild Boar, Wolf, Red, Fallow, and Roe 

 Deer, Beaver, Wild Cat, White Wild Cattle, several animals of the 

 Weasel kind, remains of Bos primigenius and Bos longifrons^ Irish 

 Elk (so-called). Horse, and Badger, together with a host of the 

 remains of animals at present existing. The human remains consist 

 of parts of the skull and teeth of an adult male, several ribs of a child^ 

 together with a number of gnawed and splintered pieces. 



The whole of the species represented by the above Hst have 

 not been found in any one cave or fissure, the most general 

 finds occurring at Helsfell and Whitbarrow. The curious mixture 

 of animals of such widely-different haunt and habit — the bears 

 with the bovines, the deer with the wolf — at once suggest the 

 idea that the quieter creatures have been dragged to the recesses 

 which constituted the lairs of the larger carnivora. Another interest- 

 ing fact is that a human tibia found among the remains shows marks 

 of having been sawn by a blunt or jagged instrument. Before 

 examining somewhat more minutely the above list, just a word as to 

 the caves and fissures whence they are derived, and as to the substance 

 in which the bones are found embedded. Speaking generally, 

 the caves in this district occur in calcareous rocks, and it is well 

 known that wherever calcareous strata are sufficiently hard and 

 compact to support a roof, caves are to be found in greater or less 



Feb. 1887. 



