John Magens Mello

“ Great care has been taken to keep the contents of the different beds separate, each bed having been worked out, as far as possible, independently, and the earth riddled as it was removed to the mouth of the cave ”

“ It will hardly be necessary to do more by way of recapitulation than just allude to the first papers read, which have established the fact that we have at Creswell a series of highly important caves, illustrating by their contents two periods of human occupation during the Palæolithic age in Britain, when man was contemporary in Derbyshire and the adjoining district with the characteristic Pleistocene fauna. ”

“ In this no remains of any sort were found.
8. Chamber C.—It will be observed that comparatively few bones were discovered in Chamber C, large as is this portion of the cave. The rock floor in it was generally nearer to the roof than in the other chambers, and the deposits of cave-earth and sand were, on the whole, less thick; at the extreme left a considerable stalagmitic deposit is to be seen coating the rock. The comparative absence of bones in this chamber may perhaps be attributed to the presence of a stream of water running for some time through this branch of the cavern. ”

“ Amongst these bones there were also a perfect ulna of a bear, and several milk-teeth of the Mammoth, besides one large fourth molar which Mr. Heath was fortunate enough to find near the old wall: this measured 11 inches in length by 9 inches in height.
1. The Talus.—When we resumed work this year we began, as we had done at the Robin-Hood Cave, by making an examination of the talus at its mouth (fig. 10) . ”

“ The value of this discovery, the first of its kind made in this country, need scarcely be insisted upon. But we have yet to record another discovery of as great, if not greater, importance. At the far end of Chamber F, in the same cave-earth, at a depth of about 1 foot, Prof. Dawkins had the good fortune to see extracted, by a workman, a canine of Machairodus latidens, an animal whose remains, as all will be aware, have only twice before been found in England—the Rev. ”