BLAKE — O'S THE CEANIA OP ANCIENT EACES. 



217 



the cave at Stanliope does not indicate a high geological antiquity. 

 Although a great range of variation is undoubtedly observable 

 in the amount of cartilaginous matter retained in the bones, still 

 none adhere to the tongue with the same firm degree of fixation as 

 the hygsna remains, e.ff. from the Kirkdale Cavern. Moreover, all 

 the remains which I have myself examined indicate animals, as the 

 ox, horse, otter, badger, water-rat, goat, roebuck, which are still 

 found in England, or which, as the wild boar, have become extinct 

 during a late liistorical period. The presence of bronze remains, 

 analogous to those used by the early Scandinavians, however, would 

 not leave us to infer even a high historical antiquity to these remains. 

 The rate at which the stalagmitic formation — in this case extending 

 to as much as eight inches of depth — might have been deposited, 

 may possibly afford us a means of estimating the age more accurately. 

 Practical geologists alone can determine this. The fragmentary 

 condition of many of the bones indicates the possibility of their 

 having been the debris of repasts. Some small hollow bones have 

 been split longitudinally, perhaps to extract the marrow for the 

 use of man. Another bone bears the impress of two small teeth 

 on one, and another tooth on the other side : such small apertures 

 or impressions could have been made with facility by the acuminate 

 cuspid teeth of the otter, whose jaw is found in the cave. Not 

 so by the tooth of the badger, also found in proximity, whose 

 powerful tuberculate molars would not have punctured the bone, 

 but crushed it ; scarcely by the tooth of the water-rat {Arvicola 

 ampTiihia), whose scalpriform teeth would have eroded the surface of 

 the bone without drilling an aperture. One of the punctures is 

 squared, and of the same dimensions as the crown of the upper 

 incisor of the amphibious rodent. However, the distance between 

 the two most prominent apertures in the bone accords with the 

 distance between the two most salient cusps of the premolar and 

 molar series in the jaw of the otter, which, deprived of fish, would 

 have been glad to partake of a more nutritive food. 



Otter {JLutra vulgaris). We have evidence of the fractured part 

 of a skull of this species, which, as well as a ramus of under jaw, 

 has been preserved. The jaw is nearly perfect, but the only teeth 

 which still remain in it are the canine, the second,^ 3, and the third, 

 ip 4, premolars. Empty sockets alone indicate the spots where p 2, 

 m 1 (the sectorial tooth), and m 2 have been. The jaw, as well as the 

 fractured cranium, is fresh, and contains much of the recent animal 

 matter. 



Badger {Meles taxus). The large left ramus of jaw (specimen ISTo. 

 50), by the characteristic form of its first true molar, is manifestly that 

 of the existing badger. In it the molar series is perfect, with the 

 exception of 2, the molar series, in place, being m 2, m 1, p 4<, p 3, 

 and p 1. The apex of the canine, as well as the crown of m 1, is 

 much worn, indicating the age of the individual to which the jaw 

 belonged. The incisor series is absent, and the ascending ramus of 

 the jaw, coronoid, condyle, and angle, are broken away. 



VOL. v. 2 F 



