Page:The history of Little England beyond Wales and the non-Kymric colony settled in Pembrokeshire.pdf/34

8 which stands about a mile from the sea, flat marsh land and sand burrows intervening. There can be little doubt that in comparatively recent days the sea washed the foot of this hill. The entrance to the Coygan is extremely low and narrow, but soon opens out into a lofty and extensive chamber. So far as I know there has been no discovery of neolithic remains in this cave. It was deemed by the late Professor Rolleston to be the most perfect instance of a hyæna den he had met with. We found hyæna bones in position, and their coprolites in great quantities, apparently as fresh as though they had been voided recently; the other remains were similar to those found in Black Rock and Caldy, but were more plentiful, in good condition, and much scored by teeth marks.

In addition to these ordinary cave bones, I had the good fortune to find under rhinoceros bones which were overlaid by stalagmite a piece of bone, whittled and rounded into the shape of an awl, lying alongside of two flint flakes, one of which had indubitably been manipulated, the other was a pebble which had been broken, whether by natural or artificial means it is impossible to say; these are in the Tenby Museum, and constitute the sole proof of the presence of pleistocene man in West Wales discovered by me. To many this bald list of the relics obtained from our ossiferous caves will prove I fear, but dry reading; but if we examine what is known as to the appearance and habits of these various beasts whose bones we have unearthed, matter of interest may be deduced.

We find that the pleistocene fauna naturally divides into three classes—northern, temperate, and southern—and yet from the intimate association of the bones there can be no doubt that they ranged the land together.

At the head of this division stands the mammoth elephas primigenius. We are perfectly acquainted with, and know the general appearance of this mighty elephant; for not only have we his bones, but the soft parts have been preserved in the frozen banks of the river Lena; and as if this was not enough we have his portrait drawn on his own ivory by the cave men of the Dordogne valley, who hunted and slew him. The specimen of the mammoth which was found in Siberian ice was nine feet high and sixteen feet long. He was by no means a very large one, for bones and tusks have been found in many places which obviously must have been derived from much taller animals. For instance, a tusk was obtained from Ilford which measured twelve feet six inches in length following the outward curvature; while a fragment was found at Clacton, Essex, with a circumference of two feet. In all probability the female carried less formidable weapons. The mammoth, unlike his extant congeners, was clad in a thick fur coat composed first of black bristles, thicker than horse hair, from twelve to sixteen inches long; secondly, hair of a reddish brown, about four inches ; and lastly, with wool of the same colour as the hair.

Professor Owen considers that the formation of the mammoth’s grinders prove that it fed on the woody fibre of trees, "and was thereby rendered independent of the seasons which regulate the development of leaves and fruit." Strange to say, Mr. Middendorf, in the year 1843, found the carcasses of several mammoths both calves and adults, and associated with them was the trunk of a larch tree (pinus larix) as though nature had preserved it especially to teach us what that woody fibre was. Near at hand there were some marine shells—