BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING, 



439 



and horse before thej were buried in diluvial mud." The account which Mr. 

 Bell has given in his " History of the Existmg Quadrupeds of Britain," of the 

 food and habits of the weasel, is, however, scarcely reconcileable with the idea 

 of its applying its slender acuminate teeth to the act of gnawmg bones ; and 

 we shall be justified, therefore, in requirm^ further evidence before admitting 

 the Fiitoi'ilis vulgaris into the catalogue of British Fossils, as the associate of 

 tlie extinct mammalia of the Oreston caves."* That author returns to the sub- 

 ject in the following passage in the same work where he is describing certain 

 fossil remains of the water-vole, Aroicola amphibia. " Some of the bones from 

 the cavernous fissures at Oreston show marks of nibbling, which may be 

 referred more probably to the incisors of a small rodent, than to the canines 

 of a weasel."f 



The subject is chiefly interesting in its connection with Oreston, as bones of 

 both weasel and water-vole have been found in Kent's Hole, Torquay, and 

 in the Ash-Hole, near Berry Head. 



So far as can be gathered from the authors whom I have been able to con- 

 sult, the following species are, according to the present state of our knowledge, 

 peculiar to Oreston, as they do not appear to have been found elsewhere : 

 namely, the fossil ass, or zebra, Asinus fossilis. Bison minor, and the long- 

 fronted ox. Bos longifrons — aU extinct forms. 



In liis letter to Mr. Barrow, dated Plymouth, November 9th, 1822, Mr. 

 Whidbey says, " These I tliink will be the last bones I shall send you from 

 these caves, as they are now nearly worked out. The cave B terminated near 

 where it was first seen ; the head of it was closed over with a body of limestone. 



The joints of the rock were not so close but that water might drop down 

 into the cave ; and about those jouits some stalactites were found in small 

 pieces. I have not seen anything to encourage the idea that the cavern had a 

 communication with the surface since the flood; the present state of the 

 quarries shows nothing like it. "J 



And so far as he was concerned, Mr. Whidbey was right ; they were the last 

 bones he sent up ; but after the lapse of thu-ty-six years the quarrymen have 

 found other caverns and fissures rich in bones. I now propose to give such 

 information as I possess respecting this recent discovery. 



My attraction was first called to the subject towards the close of last year 

 (1858) b^ a letter from Dr. Percy, of the School of Mines, Jermyn-street, 

 London, m which he incidentally mentioned that a gentleman had just brought 

 to town some large bones then recently found at Oreston, and he suggested 

 that some attention should be given to the matter. I was at that time closely 

 occupied with the " WindniLll-hill-cavern," at Brixham, and could not go down. 

 About the middle of January last, a dealer in geological specunens, at Ply- 

 mouth, A\Tote to inform me that a day or two before he had got possession of 

 some fossils which he believed to be of great value, but he gave no other in- 

 formation whatever about them. 1 took the earliest opportunity of visiting him, 

 and found his fossils to be mammalian remains, just exhumed from a new cavern 

 at Oreston. They consisted of a considerable number of teeth, most of them of 

 herbivores, including the elephant ; with a few of carnivorous animals, amongst 

 others the cave-lion and cavern-bear. The owner had not then decided on the 

 price for which he would sell the speciinens ; but he engaged not to part with 

 them without lettmg me hear from him. 



Circumstances prevented my going to the quarry on that occasion, but early 

 in Pebruary I went again to Plymouth, purchased all the bones in the posses- 



* British Fossil Mammalia and Birds, p. 118. 

 t Iljid, p. 201. 

 % Philosophical Transactions, 1823, p. 88. 



