Jaws and teeth of a tiger, bear and hyaena - Kent's Cavern

1. Upper jaw of a large tiger, in the possession of Sir Lawrence Palk, Bart. 2. Irregular tusk of Bear. 3 Irregular under jaw of Hyaena, found in Kent's Hole, Torquay. Kent's Cavern, in Torquay, had long attracted visitors as a natural curiosity but first came to scientific prominence in 1824 when a tourist Mr J Northmore was recommended to visit the site in his pursuit of possible Mithraic artefacts. There were no signs of druids but he did find mammalian remains. The Rev William Buckland (1784-1856) had been conducting excavations in other bone caves during this period and was therefore alerted. Not having the time to oversee the project himself, Buckland encouraged the Roman Catholic priest Father John MacEnery (1797-1841) to undertake the excavations. Between 1825-1829 McEnery found the bones of extinct animals such as bears, hyaenas, rhinoceros and deer. Most controversially MacEnery claimed to have found evidences of man-made flints in amongst the animal bones. Lithograph

1784-1856 1797-1841 1824 1825-1829 Alerted Amongst Artefacts Attracted Bart Bones Buckland Cavern Caves Claimed Conducting Controversially Curiosity Druids Encouraged Evidences Excavations Flints Fossils Geological Hyaena Hyaenas Irregular Macenery Mammalian Man-made Mcenery Mithraic Northmore Oversee Palaeontology Palk Possession Possible Prominence Pursuit Recommended Rhinoceros Therefore Torquay Tusk Undertake

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