there was not a single bone of the extremities left entire in the whole relic-bed, neither was there a single complete skeleton, nor in fact any portion of one. Though the bone-fragments were so very numerous, I could not find a single instance where the blow appeared to have been given by a pointed or chisel-shaped implement; but, on the other hand, all the well-preserved specimens, showing where the blow had been given, indicate the effect of a blunt implement. It is very evident that the bones were broken for the especial purpose of obtaining the marrow. The fact that the Esquimaux of the present day make use of marrow as an article of food leads us to believe that the ancient cave-dwellers had the same custom. All the bones adhere more or less to the tongue, a characteristic mark, according to Lyell, of the fossil bones of the quaternary formation. Not a single bone showed any trace of having been gnawed,[1] so that we may conclude that man was not only, as before mentioned, the first, but also the only occupier of the Kesslerloch.
Professor Rütimeyer has submitted all the bones to a careful examination, and has determined them, for which my best thanks are due to him. If, therefore, in the following pages I make mention of the species, or their number, I must be understood to use the information derived from this well-known man of science.
The only representatives of the family Solidungula (Solipedia) found in the cave are those of the horse. But of this animal we meet with a number of teeth, vertebrae, scapulæ, bones of the feet, and hoofs. From the number of front teeth of the under-jaw 17 + 4 milk-teeth, and of the upper-jaw 15 + 3 milk-teeth, we may calculate that the number of horses eaten in the cave may probably have been about twenty, of which one-fifth had been young animals. From the size of the teeth, the hoofs, and the other bones, we may conclude that the horse of that period was about as large as that of the present day, which only differs from the cave-horse by having a wider foot. Some very few teeth, however, probably show a slight indication of another race, which has much resemblance to the fossil form of the horse found in the quaternary formations.[2] Whether these
- ↑ See the note as to gnawed bones under the description of the Carnivora of the cave.
- ↑ If it be lawful for an unpractised observer to express any opinion at all on a matter like this, it may be mentioned that, on comparing the few horse's teeth I was able to procure from the rubbish-heap with those drawn in Professor Owen's beautiful plate in the Philosophical Transactions for 1869, Plate LVII., most of them appear to
