FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



289 



Be this as it may, it is certain that no arrow-head, or worked flint, or other stone 

 of any kind was so situated. The antler of the rein-deer was found lying on 

 the floor or cake of stalagmite which covered the bed of bone-earth with all its 

 contents, and all the worked flints lay at the base of this bone-bed, and therefore 

 at a considerably lower level than the antler. 



The relics of the cave mammals, with the evidences of man's existence and 

 (as I believe) high antiquity, had all been deposited and hermetically sealed up 

 before the introduction into the cavern of that fine relic of the rein-deer. 



So far as Mr. Drake's inference is concerned, this correction is unimportant, 

 but it seems right to prevent, if possible, erroneous statements respecting Brix- 

 ham Cavern from becoming current, especially as no authorized report on it has 

 yet been given to the world. 



I am yours, &c, 



Lamorna, Torquay, June 4. W. Pengelly. 



FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



M. Gaudry has communicated another interesting paper on his 

 researches in Greece, in which he states that, although his researches 

 in 1855 furnished him with the remains of a great number of rumi- 

 nants, they never brought to light any tooth or skull belonging to 

 one of the goat tribe. So in a note which M. Lartet and himself laid 

 before the Academy in 1856, they stated their opinion that the 

 amalthee might be an antelope. At the present time M. Gaudry 

 possesses eighteen skulls, and most of them have their posterior part 

 whole, two among them being furnished with their teeth and the 

 bony axes of the horns. These fossils confirm the supposition that 

 the amalthee is not a goat, but an antelope. M. Owen says that the 

 grinders of the antelope are distinguished from those of the goat in 

 not having interlobular columns, their covering of enamel being 

 longer, and the external surface of the superior grinders having the 

 furrows more marked and the depressions not so plainly limited by 

 straight longitudinal borders. M. Gaudry has remarked also that 

 with goats the superior front grinders are cut at right angles, instead 

 of being rounded and sinuous as with antelopes ; it seems that they 

 are halves separated from the back grinders. They have not any 

 distinct tops like those of antelopes, so much so that one cannot mark 

 the part where the enamel begins upon the shaft. These characters 

 give the front grinders of the goat, seen on the external surface, a 

 look which reminds one a little of the teeth of a horse. In goats the 

 three front grinders are very straight, the space which they occupy is 

 far from being the third of the total length of the series of grinders, 

 whilst in the antelopes they attain, and sometimes go beyond, the 

 third of that length. It is true that these various characters are sub- 

 ject to exceptions, but at least they are more constant than those 

 furnished by the horns, and certainly they are of greater generic 

 value. The amalthee has not any of those characteristics enumerated 

 vol. IV. 2 G 



