Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/116

cliffs bounding the rocky peninsula of Gower, in which Rhinoceros hemitœchus and tichorhinus were associated with Elephas antiquus and primigenius. In one of these, called Bosco's Den, there were no less than 750 shed antlers of reindeer. In another (Long Hole), the fossil remains included E. antiquus and primigenius, two species of rhinoceros (hemitœchus and tichorhinus], bear, lion, hyæna, reindeer, and bison, associated with well-formed flint flakes or knives found at various depths in the cave-earth. Sir Ch. Lyell (ibid., p. 173), after remarking that that was the first well-authenticated instance of the occurrence of R. hemitœchus in connection with human implements, comments as follows on these discoveries:—

"Dr Falconer announced in 1860 his opinion that the filling up of the Gower caves in South Wales took place after the deposition of the marine boulder clay, an opinion in harmony with what we have since learnt from the section of the gravels near Bedford, where a fauna corresponding to that of the Welsh caves characterises the ancient alluvium, and is shown to be clearly post-glacial, in the sense of being posterior in date to the submergence of the Midland Counties beneath the waters of the glacial sea. In the same sense the late Edward Forbes declared in 1846 his conviction that not only the Cervus megaceros, but also the mammoth and other extinct pachyderms and carnivora, had lived in Britain in post-glacial times. The Gower caves in general have their floors strewed over with sand, containing marine shells, all of living species; and there are raised beaches on the adjoining coast, and other geological signs of great alteration in the relative level of land and sea, since that country was inhabited by the extinct mammalia, some of which, as we have seen, were certainly coeval with Man." (Ibid., p. 174.)

 

Wookey Hole.

The famous Hyæna Den of Wookey Hole, situated on the south side of the Mendips, was discovered about the year 1849 while cutting a canal along the edge of the rock for the purpose of supplying a paper-mill with water from the Axe. In the course of this operation the cavern, choked up to the roof with ossiferous loam, was exposed. It consists of a chamber attached to a bifurcated passage, one of the ends of which runs into a vertical opening or chimney. The cave has been repeatedly investigated, and for the results we are chiefly indebted to Dr Boyd Dawkins, who writes as follows:—

"The remains obtained in 1862-3, from three to four thousand in number, afford a vivid picture of the animal life of the time in Somerset. They belong to