BLAKE — ON THE CEANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 
217 
the cave at Stanhope 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 hyaena remains, e.g. from the Kirkdaie 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 historical 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 tAvo 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 
amphibia), 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 {Z-utra 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 secoJid,2; 3, and the third, 
p 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 No. 
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 p 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. Y. * * 2 F 
