108 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
" by the shattered appearance of the ends of many of the bones, 
and the sharp splinters, which are in great numbers, and seem as if 
they had been gnawed, and broken by the teeth of some animal." * 
Mr. Cottle mentions the discovery of one mass of album grcecum. f 
Col. Hamilton Smith speaks of several of the caves as having 
"bones, such as of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ox, Horse, Hyaena, and 
abundant coprolite, deuoting that they had been the dens of 
Carnivora. J This must have been before 1848. 
That Mr. Hennah was wrong in his conclusion here we may 
safely assume, from the strongly expressed opinion to the contrary 
on these very bones by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Clift. Bones may 
be shattered and splintered without the agency of carnivora ; and 
there was no evidence whatever of contemporary gnawing. 
Nor is Mr. Cottle's discovery of any moment. A few coprolites 
or masses of album grcecum might very well occur where the bodies 
of animals had been deposited while intact. 
Col. Hamilton Smith's statement is not so easily met. It would 
be conclusive if he also mentioned gnawed bones ; but as it stands 
there is the possibility of other things having been mistaken for 
coprolital matters, probably clay balls, such as those noted by Mr. 
Pengelly in 1859. In any case however the reference is to a cave 
on which we have absolutely no other information ; and there is 
nothing at all improbable in the supposition that Oreston may have 
had its den as well as Yealmpton and Torquay. I have always 
recognized the possibility of this; but if so the case was excep- 
tional, and does not affect the general issue. Were all, or even 
the majority, of the Oreston bone caves dens the question would 
stand upon a different footing. 
Dismissing then the hypothesis of the introduction of the 
remains into the fissures by carnivora as unsupported by facts, and 
practically irrelevant, we have to deal with the phenomena on a 
mechanical basis. At one time or other every cavity had its com- 
munication with the surface, approximately perpendicular, as in 
the case of the fissure caves, approximately horizontal, as in the 
case of the tunnel caverns, but either way open to the action ot 
running water. 
Dr. Buckland's hypothesis was that "the animals had fallen 
* Op. cit. p. 67. 
f Op. cit. "Devon. Assoc. Trans., vol. v. part i. p. 273. 
% "Nat Hist. Human Species," p. 96. 
