98 DR. BUCKLAND ON FOSSIL OVINE BONES. 
I have a letter by me from the pen of Dr. Buck- 
land, wherein he warns me I had perhaps been 
hasty in ascribing certain of the bones of the Yealm 
Bridge cave, to the sheep. A careful comparison 
however of these with bones of our present existing 
species, and due reflection on their actual position in 
the cave, is sufficient to warrant the name assigned to 
them, and Messrs. Clift and Owen, of the Royal 
College of Surgeons have on examination confirmed 
my opinion. Dr. Buckland imagined their absence 
from the ossiferous caves with which he w as ac¬ 
quainted, tended to prove that no tribe of men 
were contemporaneous inhabitants of our island 
with the hyaenas, elephants, rhinoceroses, &c. &c. 
whose remains occurred in the caves of Kirkdale, 
Oreston, Hatton-Hill, Torquay, &c. But, I must 
be allow r ed to remark, that nothing can forbid our 
allowing the existence of a species of sheep in the 
epoch now alluded to, though the absence of ovine 
remains would indeed strengthen Dr. Buckland’s 
position. It is quite as likely that a kind of sheep 
existed, as the species of ox or horse. Ovine bones 
occurred under the stalagmite in the cavern at 
Berry Head.* 
* In a subsequent letter, the learned and obliging Professor 
shews how a fallacy similar to that mentioned by Mr. Me. Enery 
might occur, relative to the age of ovine bones found in caverns, 
though, his remarks which I here give, do not apply in either of 
the above named cases. “ Nothing is more common than to find 
“ the remains of sheep and lambs in the same cave with bones of 
“ hyaenas laid irregularly over the surface of the floor, and the 
“ accumulation of these is due to foxes that in modern times 
“ have frequented these caves, and dragged into them their prey, 
a as they sometimes also, dig deep holes in the diluvium within the 
“ cave, which holes, in the course of time get filled up again ; it is. 
“ very possible that a sheep's bone falling into one of these holes whilst 
i( open, may subsequently be found at a great depth in the diluvial clay 
u thus disturbed, and’ may seem to be of the same age with the bones of 
“ extinct species by the side of which they lie buried." In the cavern 
