shown some remains of the hyæna collected there, I felt convinced that a complete revolution must have taken place in the topography of the district since the time of the extinct quadrupeds. I was not aware at the time, that flint tools had been met with in the same bone-deposit."
LONG HOLE, GOWER, AND OTHER CAVES.
The next British cavern which I have to mention is one of the series in the Peninsula of Gower, in Glamorganshire, explored by Colonel Wood and the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, F.R.S. The cave in question was discovered in 1861, and is known as Long Hole.[1] It is about one mile east of the well-known Paviland Caves, and is about 130 feet above ordinary high-water mark. It penetrates the limestone rock to a distance of about 44 feet, and when discovered did not exceed in its greatest dimensions 12 feet in width, and 7 feet in height.
There was a deposit of about 7 feet of ferruginous, unctuous cave-earth, mixed with angular fragments of limestone rock, forming the floor, which was in part, if not wholly, of stalagmite. The fossil remains found in the cave included Ursus spelæus, Hyæna spelæa, Felis spelæa, Rhinoceros hemitœchus and tichorhinus, Elephas antiquus and primigenius, Bison priscus and Cervus tarandus. Flint implements, unquestionably of human manufacture, were found along with these remains; and one very fine flint "arrow-head," as termed by Dr. Falconer,[2] was found at a depth of 412 feet in the cave-earth, contiguous to a detached shell of a milk molar of Rhinoceros hemitœchus, and at the same depth. Other flint implements were found at a depth of 3 feet below the stalagmite, associated with remains of Cervus Guettardi, a variety of reindeer. Sir Charles Lyell[3] has remarked that this is the first well-authenticated example of the occurrence of Rhinoceros hemitœchus in connection with human implements. Dr. Falconer has also recognized the same species, in the fragment of an upper milk molar, discovered in the Wookey Hole Hyæna Den by Prof. Boyd Dawkins.
I have had an opportunity of examining casts of the worked flints from Long Hole, in the Christy Collection, and find them to
- ↑ Falconer, "Palæont. Mem.," vol. ii. p. 538. Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvi., 1860, p. 487. Geologist, vol. iii. p. 413.
- ↑ "Pal. Mem.," vol. ii. p. 640.
- ↑ "Ant. of Man," 3rd ed., p. 173.
