BEITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING. 



29 



In the first, I would mention that remains of very large animals were met 

 with, the occurrence of portions of several mammoths being proved by the pre- 

 sence of various grinders belonging not merely to very young, but also to some- 

 what mature animals, a fourth molar of the lower jaw of an animal of this 

 species having been found six and a-quarter inches in length, the breadth at its 

 widest part being two and a-quarter inches, containmg sixteen plates, which 

 have aU been brought into use, the tooth being worn down at its anterior ex- 

 tremity, so as to exhibit the common uniting base of dentine along the margins 

 of the first and second plates. A second corresponding molar of the lower jaw 

 wanting a few plates at its anterior portion, together with fragments of two 

 other fourth molars in different stages of development were also met with, and 

 teeth of larger size than these were uidicated by the presence in the clay of 

 other detached and fractured plates. I would also add that there occurred a 

 few fractured portions of one or more molar teeth of the rhinoceros, but no 

 mammoth's or other large bones were discovered. 



The above facts being considered, can we allow that such ponderous animals 

 could have fallen upon a soft tenacious bed of clay, without suiking more than 

 a few inches into it ? or that their skeletons could have been washed down from 

 above, without a much greater disturbance of the clay than was found to be 

 indicated by the parallel and undisturbed arrangement of its laminated por- 

 tions ? Could, moreover, these monsters have fallen into the cavern, without 

 a much greater apparent disturbance of the beds of limestone having been 

 caused by the formation of a sufiiciently large opening ; and would not, in such 

 cases, numerous other parts of the skeleton have been met with ? 



Secondly, numerous teeth of elk or deer and of ox were found, but 

 no antlers nor horn-cores belonging to such animals (a single fragment of the 

 base of an antler and one small horn-core excepted), which would, most pro- 

 bably, have been the case, had the fissure been a large one, and some fragments, 

 at least, of the fragile antlers might naturally have been expected to occur, had 

 such been washed dow from a higher level ; on the other hand, it may be pre- 

 sumed that they would have proved to carnivora an inconvenient and unprofit- 

 able burthen for carriage into their den. 



Thirdly, among the bones met with, scarcely a single large one had escaped 

 fracture, with the exception of the astralagus and other hard and solid bones of 

 the. tarsus and carpus jomts and those of the feet ; facts perfectly similar to 

 those observed by Dr. Buckland in the hyaena-cave at Ku'kdale, in which the 

 presence of their numerous coprolites proved that these animals inhabited the 

 cavern. 



Fourthly, although the cave did not contain any remains of hyaenas or their 

 coprolites, several teeth of bears and Hons or tigers were discovered ; and I 

 think it may be legitimately deduced from the occurrence of these cave- 

 inhabiting animals that the bones above referred to had been fractured by them 

 for the purpose of obtaining their edible contents ; the occurrence of several 

 fragments of canmes of the gigantic Fells spelaa having the two characteristic 

 longitudinal indentations on their crowns, together with the canine and sectorial 

 molar of an immense lion or tiger, the former tooth measurmg five and three- 

 quarter inches in length, may too, I imagine, satisfactorily account for the 

 strength required to carry the remains of such animals as the mammoth and 

 rhinoceros into the cave. 



Lastly, I would remark that the view of the non-accidental introduction of 

 the remains into the cave appeared stiU further to be confirmed by the appear- 

 ances presented in a fissure unexpectedly opened into by the workmen, and 

 separated from the larger cavern by a comparatively thin wall of solid limestone. 

 Here many of the bones were only slightly fractured, and there occurred the 

 nearly perfect skuU of a hog, encrusted with stalactite, a cast in the same sub- 



