Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 32.djvu/328

244 chips struck off one end, and the opposite face being much bruised. Besides these implements there were a considerable number of unfashioned pebbles of quartzite, together with one or two of black chert and of quartz, both in the cave-earth and in the red sand. The cave-earth, as well as the breccia, contained a good many small fragments of charcoal. We found numerous animal remains in this bed. Horse-teeth were specially numerous, and also those of the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and of the Hyæna; a good many very perfect fragments of both the upper and lower jawbones of the latter animal were found, one of the upper jaws still retaining, in addition to the canine and large molars, the small fifth molar that is so generally lost. A left ramus of a lower jaw has also some of the incisors in situ. The numerous Rhinoceros-teeth are both upper and lower molars and premolars, together with some milk-teeth, most of them being very perfect. In this bed were found bones of the Reindeer, as well as teeth, and also some fine teeth of the Cave-Lion and of Bears. At the base of the cave-earth, at one place on the left-hand side of the cavern there was a thin bed of small pebbles, apparently deposited by water; this and the laminated red clay were the only traces of any thing like regular bedding in the floor of the cave, apart from the chief divisions already mentioned. At one point the cave-earth had been considerably disturbed by a fox-hole; this was the only instance in which such disturbance was seen (see 1, fig. 2).

The Red Sand (c).—The Red Sand underlying the cave-earth contained comparatively few bones, except in one place near the entrance of the cavern, where a considerable number of large bones were found at its base, almost resting on the underlying light sand. The bones consisted of portions of antlers and other remains of the Reindeer, some very perfect metacarpals and metatarsals, and vertebræ of the Bison, and some bones of the Hyæna etc. At another place was found an extremely perfect small molar of Elephas primigenius with a portion of the jawbone still attached to it. A further and detailed account of the implements and bones of this cavern has been kindly prepared for me by my friend Prof. Boyd Dawkins, and will be found in the following paper. One thing to which I should call attention is the somewhat strange fact that although a very large majority of the bones discovered have been gnawed by hyænas, to whose agency we must attribute the presence of most of the animal remains found in these caves, yet up to the present time we have been able to find no trace of the coprolites of these animals, which are usually so numerous in hyæna-dens; I hardly know how to account for their absence. I hope that we shall be able to continue the work of exploration during the ensuing summer; and the results of such further explorations I trust I shall have the honour of bringing before the Society at a later period.