260 "I'ilE QEOLOGIST. 



spelcea; 2. Tlrsiis spelceus ; 3. Hyaena spelcea ; 4. Bos primigenhis ; 5. 

 Hippopotamus major; 6. Cervus megaceros : making six out of the 

 eight species assigned to Maccagnone. 



These six identifications are simply imaginary ; not one of the species, so 

 far as I am aware, having been as yet mentioned on authority, as occurring 

 in the Grotto of Maccagnone. 



Such a wholesale manufacture of species, in a case of such gravity, 

 requires no comment. 



Your obedient servant, 

 London, June 23, 1862. H. Falconer. 



Discovery of a Human Skeleton and oilier Bemains in tlie 'bed of tlie 

 Miver Soar, at Leicester. 



On the western side of the town of Leicester there is an old bridge, 

 known as the " Bow Bridge." It has recently been taken down for recon- 

 struction ; during the progress of the work the stream has been stopped, 

 and a dam thrown across the channel north and south of the bridge, 

 leaving the bed of the river dry. The upper surface was a black, muddy, 

 alluvial deposit,'but this being penetrated, the pure Drift gravel presented 

 itself. This gravel lies immediately on the abraded surface of the Upper 

 Keuper Sandstone, which here dips away under the town towards the 

 Liassic hills on the eastern side. In excavating on the east side of the 

 old bridge for the new foundations, and digging in the bed of the river, the 

 workmen came upon ground in the Drift of a mixed character, gravel and silt. 

 After digging out three feet of this, they came upon a human skeleton 

 lying face upwards, the knees drawn towards the head. It vras nearly 

 entire, a few of the vertebrae and the smaller bones of the hands and feet 

 only are wanting. ]^ear this skeleton were found the skull of a horse, ox 

 horns, and other bones. 



The old bridge is of some antiquity, and is supposed to have been 

 erected in the twelfth century. The road to which it leads is the Via Vici- 

 nalis of the old Eoman town of Eatte, and leads to the " Home Way," 

 another Eoman road near Leicester. Over this bridge Eichard the Third 

 rode to the field of Bosworth, and his body is said to have been thrown 

 over the bridge into the river by the midtitude. Be this as it may, the 

 navvies and common people firmly believe this skeleton to be the remains 

 of that monarch ; but as Eichard'a body was " hacked to pieces," and his 

 age at liis death v,-as about thirty-five, and as the bones bear no appear- 

 ance of being " hacked," and the last molar being still in its socket, no 

 weight can be given to such an impression. Certainly Eichard the Third 

 had cut his "wisdom teeth."* 



James Plant. 



23/'(/ June, 1862. 



* These rcinnins have been transmitted to ns for inspectiou. It is a youno-, and 

 seemingly not adult, woman's skektou.— l^n. Geol. 



