260 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
spelfca ; 2. JJrsus spelceus ; 3. Mycena spelcea ; 4. JBos primi g cuius ; 5. 
Ilippopotamus major; 6. Cerviis meg aceros : j m?^mg six out of the 
eight species assigned to Maccagnone. 
These six identificatioTis 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. rALCONEE. 
Discovery of a Human SJceleton and other Remains in the led of the 
Biver 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, Mhich 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 theDriffc 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 was nearly 
entire, a few of the vertebree and the smaller bones of the hands and feet 
only are wanting. Near 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 Eatse, 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 multitude. Be this as it may, the 
navvies and common people firmly believe this skeleton to be the remains 
of that monarch ; but as Eichard's body was " hacked to pieces," and his 
age at his death was 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. 
23r(/ Jurte, 1862. 
* These remains have been transmitted to us for inspection. It is a young, and 
seemingly not adult, woman's skeleton. — Ed. Geol. 
