[1] The loss of the regiment was twenty-eight killed and sixty-six
wounded.
CAVAN, a county in the province of Ulster, Ireland, bounded N. by
Fermanagh and Monaghan, E. by Monaghan and Meath, S. by Meath, Westmeath
and Longford, and W. by Longford and Leitrim. The area is 477,399 acres,
or about 746 sq. m. The surface of the county is uneven, consisting of
hill and dale, without any great extent of level ground, but only in its
northern extremity attaining a mountainous elevation. The barony of
Tullyhaw, bordering on Fermanagh, a wild dreary mountain district, known
as the kingdom of Glan or Glengavlin, contains the highest land in the
county, reaching 2188 ft. in Cuilcagh, the place of inauguration for the
Maguires, chieftains of Fermanagh, held in veneration by the peasantry,
in connexion with legends and ancient superstitions. The remainder of
the county is not deficient in wood, and contains numerous lakes,
generally of small dimensions, but of much beauty, especially Lough
Oughter, with its many inlets and islands formed by the Erne river,
between the towns of Cavan and Killashandra. The county also shares with
other counties the waters of Lough Gowna and Lough Sheelin, in which, as
elsewhere in the county, the fishing is good. The chief river in the
county is the Erne, which originates in Lough Scrabby, one of the minor
sheets of water communicating with Lough Gowna on the borders of
Longford. The river takes a northerly direction by Killashandra and
Belturbet, being enlarged during its course by the Annalee and other
smaller streams, and finally enters Lough Erne near the northern limit
of the county. The other waters, consisting of numerous lakes and their
connecting streams, are mostly tributary to the Erne. A copious spring
called the Shannon Pot, at the foot of the Cuilcagh Mountain, in the
barony of Tullyhaw, is regarded as the source of the river Shannon. The
Blackwater, a tributary of the Boyne, also rises in this county, near
Bailieborough. Several mineral springs exist in this county, the chief
of which is near the once frequented village of Swanlinbar. In the
neighbourhood of Belturbet, near the small lake of Annagh, is a
carbonated chalybeate spring. There are several other springs of less
importance; and the small Lough Leighs, or Lough-an-Leighaghs, which
signifies the healing lake, on the summit of a mountain between
Bailieborough and Kingscourt, is celebrated for its antiscorbutic
properties. The level of this lake never varies. It has no visible
supply nor vent for its discharge; nor is it ever frozen during the
severest winters.
_Geology_.--This elongated county includes on the north-west some of
the highland of Millstone Grit and Coal-Measures that rises above
Lough Allen. The beds below these are referred to the English Yoredale
series, and include some flaggy sandstones. It is on this series that
the Shannon rises, under the high outlier of grit on Cuilcagh. The
Carboniferous Limestone then stretches down to Cavan town, a bold
outlier of the higher strata being left above Ballyconnell. The river
Erne forms, in the limestone area, a characteristic series of
expansions and loops, with islands between them, known as Lough
Oughter. At this point we pass on to the axis of underlying Silurian
strata that runs from Longford to Donaghadee in Co. Down, and the
country becomes hilly and irregular, culminating about Cross Keys on
the old Dublin coach-road. A patch of granite, indicating doubtless a
core like that exposed at Newry, is seen in a hollow at Crossdoney. On
the south side of this axis of older rocks, we reach Carboniferous
shale and limestone at Lough Sheelin, and here enter on the great
central plain. The extreme south-east of the county includes part of
the Triassic outlier of Kingscourt. The coal-seams and concretions of
clay-ironstone in the north-west area resemble those mentioned under
the head of Co. Roscommon. Anthracite, probably of inorganic origin,
has been mined without permanent success in the Silurian beds near
Kilnaleck, and is traceable freely, associated with veins of quartz
and haematite, at Ballyjamesduff a little farther east.
_Climate and Industries._--The climate suffers from the dampness arising
from the numerous lakes and the nature of the soil, and from the
boisterous winds which frequently prevail, more especially in the higher
districts. The soil is generally a stiff clay, cold and watery, but
capable of much improvement by drainage, for which its undulating
surface affords facilities. Only about one-sixteenth of the total area
is quite barren. Agriculture makes little progress; the extent of the
farms being generally small. Oats and potatoes are the principal crops.
Flax, once of some importance, is almost neglected. In the mountainous
parts, however, where the land is chiefly under grazing, the farms are
larger, and in stock-raising the county is progressing.
Cavan is not a manufacturing county. The bleaching of linen and the
distillation of whisky are both carried on to a small extent, but the
people are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits and in the sale of
home produce. The soil in those districts not well adapted for tillage
is peculiarly favourable for trees. The woods were formerly very
considerable, and the timber found in the bogs is of large dimensions;
but plantations are now chiefly found in demesnes, where they are
extensive.
The county is not well served by railways. The Great Northern from
Clones to Cavan, and the Midland Great Western from Mullingar in
Westmeath to Cavan, form a through line from north to south. The Great
Northern has branches to Belturbet from Ballyhaise, and to Cootehill
from Ballybay; the Midland Great Western has a branch to Killashandra,
and from Navan in Meath to Kingscourt, just within Cavan. The Cavan &
Leitrim railway starts from Belturbet and soon leaves the county to the
west.
_Population and Administration._--The population (111,917 in 1891;
97,541 in 1901), of which about 80% are Roman Catholics, shows a
decrease among the most serious of the Irish counties, and emigration
returns are among the heaviest. The population is almost wholly rural,
the only towns being the small ones of Cavan (pop. 2822, the county
town), Cootehill (1509), Belturbet (1587) and Bailieborough (1004). The
county is divided into eight baronies, and contains thirty-two parishes
and parts of parishes. It is almost entirely within the Protestant and
Roman Catholic dioceses of Kilmore. The assizes are held at Cavan, and
quarter sessions are held at Cavan, Bailieborough, Cootehill and
Ballyconnell. Before the Union the county returned six members to the
Irish parliament, two for the county at large, and two for each of the
boroughs of Cavan and Belturbet; but since that period it has been
represented in the imperial parliament by two members only, for the east
and west divisions.
_History and Antiquities._--At the period of the English settlement, and
for some centuries afterwards, this district was known as the Brenny,
being divided between the families of O'Rourke and O'Reilly; and its
inhabitants, protected by the nature of the country, long maintained
their independence. In 1579 Cavan was made shire ground as part of
Connaught, and in 1584 it was formed into a county of Ulster by Sir John
Perrott, and subdivided into seven baronies, two of which were assigned
to Sir John O'Reilly and three to other members of the family; while the
two remaining, possessed by the septs of Mackernon and Magauran, and
situated in the mountains bordering on O'Rourke's country, were left
subject to their ancient tenures and the exactions of their Irish lord.
The county subsequently came within the scheme for the plantation of
Ulster under James I. The population is less mixed in race than in most
parts of Ulster, being generally of Celtic extraction. Some few remains
of antiquity remain in the shape of cairns, raths and the ruins of small
castles, such as Cloughoughter Castle on an island (an ancient crannog)
of Lough Oughter. Three miles from the town of Cavan is Kilmore, with
its cathedral, a plain erection containing a Romanesque doorway brought
from the abbey of Trinity Island, Lough Oughter. The bishopric dates
from about 1450. A portion of a round tower is seen in the churchyard
of the parish of Drumlane at Belturbet.
CAVAN, a market-town and the county town of Co. Cavan, Ireland, near the
centre of the county, in the west parliamentary division, 85-1/2 m. N.W.
of Dublin by the Midland Great Western railway, and the terminus of a
branch of the Great Northern railway from Clones. Pop. of urban district
(1901), 2822. It is on one of the tributary streams of the Annalee
river, in a broad valley surrounded on every side by elevated ground,
with picturesque environs, notably the demesnes of Farnham and of
Kilmore, which belongs to the bishops of that diocese. Cavan has no
buildings of antiquarian interest, but the principal county institutions
are here, and the most conspicuous building is the grammar school,
founded by Charles I. It was rebuilt in 1819 on an eminence overlooking
one of the main entrances into the town, and is capable of accommodating
100 resident pupils. The college of St Patrick is near the town. Cavan
has some linen trade, and a considerable retail business is transacted
in the town. A monastery of Dominican friars, founded by O'Reilly,
chieftain of the Brenny, formerly existed here, and became the
burial-place of the celebrated Irish general, Owen O'Neill, who died as
is supposed by poison, in 1649, at Cloughoughter. There was also the
castle of the O'Reillys, but this and all other antiquities of the town
were swept away during the violent and continuous feuds to which the
country was subjected. In 1690 the chief portion of the town was burned
by the Enniskilleners under General Wolseley, when they routed a body of
James II.'s troops under the duke of Berwick.
CAVANILLES, ANTONIO JOSE (1745-1804), Spanish botanist, was born at
Valencia on the 16th of January 1745. He was educated at the university
of that town, and in 1777 went to Paris, where he resided twelve years,
engaged in the study of botany. In 1801 he became director of the
botanic gardens at Madrid, where he died on the 4th of May 1804. In
1785-1786 he published _Monadelphiae Classis Dissertationes X._, and in
1791 he began to issue _Icones et descriptiones plantarum Hispaniae_.
His nephew, ANTONIO CAVANILLES (1805-1864), was a distinguished
advocate, and the author of a history of Spain, published at Madrid in
1860-1864.
CAVATINA (Ital. diminutive of _cavata_, the producing of tone from an
instrument, plural _cavatine_), originally a short song of simple
character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is
now frequently applied to a simple melodious air, as distinguished from
a brilliant aria, recitative, &c., and often forms part of a large
movement or _scena_ in oratorio or opera.
CAVE, EDWARD (1691-1754), English printer, was born at Newton,
Warwickshire, on the 27th of February 1691. His father, Joseph Cave, was
of good family, but the entail of the family estate being cut off, he
was reduced to becoming a cobbler at Rugby. Edward Cave entered the
grammar school of that town, but was expelled for robbing the master's
hen-roost. After many vicissitudes he became apprentice to a London
printer, and after two years was sent to Norwich to conduct a printing
house and publish a weekly paper. While still a printer he obtained a
place in the post office, and was promoted to be clerk of the franks. He
was at this time engaged in supplying London newsletters to various
country papers; and his enemies, who had twice summoned him before the
House of Commons for breach of privilege, now accused him of opening
letters to obtain his news, and he was dismissed the service. With the
capital which he had saved, he set up a small printing office at St
John's Gate, Clerkenwell, which he carried on under the name of R.
Newton. He had long formed a scheme of a magazine "to contain the essays
and intelligence which appeared in the two hundred half-sheets which the
London press then threw off monthly," and had tried in vain to persuade
some publisher to take it up. In 1731 he himself put it into execution,
and began the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (see PERIODICALS), of which he was
the editor, under the pseudonym "Sylvanus Urban, Gent." The magazine had
a large circulation and brought a fortune to the projector. In 1732 he
began to issue reports of the debates in both Houses of Parliament. He
commissioned friends to note the speeches, which he published with the
initial and final letters of personal names. In 1738 Cave was censured
by parliament for printing the king's answer to an address before it had
been announced by the speaker. From that time he called his reports the
debates of a "parliament in the empire of Lilliput" (see REPORTING). To
piece together and write out the speeches for this publication was
Samuel Johnson's first literary employment. In 1747 Cave was reprimanded
for publishing an account of the trial of Lord Lovat, and the reports
were discontinued till 1752. He died on the 10th of January 1754. Cave
published Dr Johnson's _Rambler_, and his _Irene, London_ and _Life of
Savage_, and was the subject of a short biography by him.
CAVE, WILLIAM (1637-1713), English divine, was born at Pickwell in
Leicestershire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and
successively held the livings of Islington (1662), of All-Hallows the
Great, Thames Street, London (1679), and of Isleworth in Middlesex
(1690). Dr Cave was chaplain to Charles II., and in 1684 became a canon
of Windsor. The two works on which his reputation principally rests are
the _Apostolici_, or History of Apostles and Fathers in the first three
centuries of the Church (1677), and _Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum
Historia Literaria_ (1688). The best edition of the latter is the
Clarendon Press, 1740-1743, which contains additions by the author and
others. In both works he was drawn into controversy with Jean le Clerc,
who was then writing his _Bibliotheque universelle_, and who accused him
of partiality. He wrote several other works of the same nature which
exhibit scholarly research and lucid arrangement. He is said to have
been a good talker and an eloquent preacher. His death occurred at
Windsor on the 4th of July 1713.
CAVE (Lat. _cavea_, from _cavus_, hollow), a hollow extending beneath
the surface of the earth. The word "cavern" (Lat. _caverna_) is
practically a synonym, though a distinction is sometimes drawn between
sea caves and inland caverns, but the term "cave" is used here as a
general description. Caves have excited the awe and wonder of mankind in
all ages, and have been the centres round which have clustered many
legends and superstitions. They were the abode of the sibyls and the
nymphs in Roman mythology, and in Greece they were the temples of Zeus,
Pan, Dionysus, Pluto and the Moon, as well as the places where the
oracles were delivered at Delphi, Corinth and Mount Cithaeron. In Persia
they were connected with the obscure worship of Mithras. Their names
frequently are survivals of the superstitious ideas of antiquity, as,
for example, the Fairy, Dragon's, or Devil's Caves of France and
Germany. Long after the Fairies and Little Men had forsaken the forests
and glens of Germany, they dwelt in their palaces deep in the Harz
Mountains, in the Dwarfholes, &c., whence they came from time to time
into the upper air.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus slept their long sleep in a cave. The
hills of Granada are still believed by the Moorish children to contain
the great Boabdil and his sleeping host, who will awake, when an
adventurous mortal invades their repose, to restore the glory of the
Moors in Spain.
Caves have been used in all ages by mankind for habitation, refuge and
burial. In the Old Testament we read that when Lot went up out of Zoar
he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters. The five kings of the
Canaanites took refuge from Joshua, and David from Saul, in the caves of
Palestine, just as the Aquitani fled from Caesar to those of Auvergne,
and the Arabs of Algeria to those of Dahra, where they were suffocated
by Marshal Pelissier in 1845. In Central Africa David Livingstone
discovered vast caves in which whole tribes found security with their
cattle and household stuff.
The cave of Machpelah may be quoted as an example of their use as
sepulchres, and the rock-hewn tombs of Palestine and of Egypt and the
Catacombs of Rome probably owe their existence to the ancient practice
of burial in natural hollows in the rock. We might therefore expect to
find in them most important evidence as to the ancient history of
mankind, which would reach long beyond written record; and since they
have always been used by wild beasts as lairs we might reasonably
believe also that their exploration would throw light upon the animals
which have in many cases disappeared from the countries which they
formerly inhabited. The labours of Buckland, Pengelly, Falconer, Lartet
and Christy, and Boyd Dawkins have added an entirely new chapter to the
history of man in Europe, as well as established the changes that have
taken place in the European fauna. The physical history of caves will be
taken first, and we shall then pass on to the discoveries relating to
man and the lower animals which have been made in them of late years.
_Physical History._--The most obvious agent in hollowing out caves is
the sea. The set of the currents, the force of the breakers, the
grinding of the shingle inevitably discover the weak places in the
cliff, and leave caves as one of the results of their work, modified in
each case by the local conditions of the rock. Those formed in this
manner are easily recognized from their floors being rarely much out of
the horizontal; their entrances are all in the same plane, or in a
succession of horizontal and parallel planes, if the land has been
elevated at successive times. From their inaccessible position they have
been rarely occupied by man. Among them Fingal's Cave, on the island of
Staffa, off the south-west coast of Scotland, hollowed out of columnar
basalt, is perhaps the most remarkable in Europe. In volcanic regions
also there are caves formed by the passage of lava to the surface of the
ground, or by the expansion of steam and gases in the lava while it was
in a molten state. They have been observed in the regions round Vesuvius
and Etna, in Iceland and Teneriffe. We may take as an example the Grotto
del Cane ("cave of the dog"), near Pozzuoli, a few miles to the
south-west of Naples, remarkable for the flow of carbonic acid from
crevices in the floor, which fills the lower part of the cave and
suffocates any small animal, such as a dog, immersed long enough in it.
The most important class of caves, however, and that which immediately
demands our notice, is that composed of those which have been cut out of
calcareous rocks by the action of carbonic acid in the rain-water,
combined with the mechanical friction of the sand and stones set in
motion by the streams which have, at one time or another, flowed through
them. They occur at various levels, and are to be met with wherever the
strata are sufficiently compact to support a roof. Those of Brixham and
Torquay and of the Eifel are in the Devonian limestone; those of Wales,
Somerset, the Pennine chain, Ireland, the central and northern counties
of Belgium, Saxony, and Westphalia, of Maine and Anjou, of Virginia and
Kentucky, are in that of the Carboniferous age. The cave of Kirkdale in
Yorkshire, and most of those in Franconia and Bavaria, penetrate
Jurassic limestones. The Neocomian and Cretaceous limestones contain
most of the caverns of France, rendered famous by the discovery of the
remains of the cave-men along with the animals which they hunted; as
well as those of the Pyrenees, the Alps, Sicily, Greece, Dalmatia,
Carniola and Palestine. The cave of Lunelviel near Montpellier is the
most important of those which have been hollowed in limestones of the
Tertiary age. They are also met with in rocks composed of gypsum; in
Thuringia, for example, they occur in the saliferous and gypseous strata
of the Zechstein, and in the gypseous Tertiary rocks of the
neighbourhood of Paris, as, for example, at Montmorency.
Caves formed by the action of carbonic acid and the action of water are
distinguished from others by the following characters. They open on the
abrupt sides of valleys and ravines at various levels, and are arranged
round the main axes of erosion, just as the branches are arranged round
the trunk of a tree. In a great many cases the relation of the valley to
the ravine, and of the ravine to the cave, is so intimate that it is
impossible to deny that all three have been produced by the same causes.
The caves themselves ramify in the same irregular fashion as the
valleys, and are to be viewed merely as the capillaries in the general
valley system through which the rain passes to join the main channels.
Sometimes, as in the famous caves of Adelsberg, Kentucky, Wookey Hole in
Somersetshire, the Peak in Derbyshire, and in many in the Jura, they are
still the passages of subterranean streams; but very frequently the
drainage has found an outlet at a lower level, and the ancient
watercourses have been deserted. These in every case present
unmistakable proof that they have been traversed by water in the sand,
gravel and clay which they contain, as well as in the worn surfaces of
the sides and bottom. In all districts where there are caves there are
funnel-shaped depressions of various sizes called pot-holes or
swallow-holes, or betoires, "chaldrons du diable," "marmites des
geants," or "katavothra," in which the rain is collected before it
disappears into the subterranean passages. They are to be seen in all
stages, some being mere hollows which only contain water after excessive
rain, while others are profound vertical shafts into which the water is
continually falling. Gaping Ghyl, 330 ft., and Helln Pot in Yorkshire,
300 ft. deep, are examples of the latter class. The _cirques_ described
by M. Desnoyers belong to the same class as the swallow-holes.
The history of swallow-holes, caves, ravines and valleys in calcareous
strata may be summed up as follows:--The calcareous rocks are invariably
traversed by joints or lines of shrinkage, which are lines of weakness
by which the direction of the drainage is determined; and they are
composed to a large extent of carbonate of lime, which is readily
exchanged into soluble bicarbonate by the addition of carbonic acid. The
rain in its passage through the air takes up carbonic acid, and it is
still further charged with it in percolating through the surface soil in
which there is decomposing vegetable matter. As the raindrops converge
towards some one point, determined by some local accident on the
surface, and always in a line of joint, the carbonic acid attacks the
carbonate of lime with which it comes into contact, and thus a funnel is
gradually formed ending in the vertical joint below. Both funnel and
vertical joint below are being continually enlarged by this process.
This chemical action goes on until the free carbonic acid is used up.
The subterranean passages are enlarged in this manner, and what was
originally an insignificant network of fissures is developed into a
series of halls, sometimes as much as from 80 to 100 ft. high. These
results are considerably furthered by the mechanical friction of the
pebbles and sand hurried along by the current, and by falls of rock from
the roof produced by the removal of the underlying strata. In many cases
the results of this action have produced a regular subterranean river
system. The thick limestones of Kentucky, for example, are traversed by
subterranean waters which collect in large rivers, and ultimately appear
at the surface in full power. The river Axe, near Wells, the stream
flowing out of the Peak Cavern at Castleton, Derbyshire, that at
Adelsberg in Carniola, flow out of caverns in full volume. The river
Styx and the waters of Acheron disappear in a series of caverns which
were supposed to lead down to the infernal regions.
If the direction of the drainage in the rock has been altered, either by
elevations such as those with which the geologist is familiar, or by the
opening out of new passages at a lower level, these watercourses become
dry, and present us with the caves which have afforded shelter to man
and the wild animals from the remotest ages, sometimes high up on the
side of a ravine, at other times close to the level of the stream at the
bottom.
Caves, as a general rule, are as little effected by disturbances of the
rock as the ravines and valleys, which have been formed, in the main,
irrespective of the lines of fault or dislocation.
We must now examine what happens to the bicarbonate of lime which has
been formed by the action of the acid on the limestone. If a current of
air play upon the surface of the water, the carbonic acid, which floats
up the lime, so to speak, is given off and the insoluble carbonate is
deposited, and as a result of this action we have the elaborate and
fantastic stony incrustations termed stalactites and stalagmites. The
water percolating through the rock covers the sides of the cavern with a
stalactitic drapery, and if a line of drops persistently falls from the
same point to the floor, the calcareous deposit gradually descends from
the roof, forming in some cases stony tassels, and in others long
columns which are ultimately united to the calcareous boss formed by the
plash of the water on the floor. The surface also of the pools is
sometimes covered over with an ice-like sheet of stalagmite, which
shoots from the sides, and sometimes forms a solid and firm floor when
the water on which it was supported has disappeared. Sometimes the drops
form a little calcareous basin, beautifully polished inside, which
contains small pearl-like particles of carbonate of lime, polished by
friction one against the other. The most beautiful stalactitic caves in
Great Britain are those of Cheddar in Somerset, Caldy Island and Poole's
Cavern at Buxton. A portion only of the carbonate of lime is thus
deposited in the hollows of the rock from which it was taken; the rest
is carried into the open air by the streams, in part deposited on the
sides and bottom, forming tufa and the so-called petrifications, and
partly being conveyed down to the sea to be ultimately secreted in the
tissues of the Mollusca, Echinodermata and Foraminifera. Through these
it is again collected in a solid form, and in the long course of ages it
is again lifted up above the level of the water as limestone rock, and
again undergoes the same series of changes. Thus the cycle of carbonate
of lime is a neverending one from the land to the ocean, from the ocean
to the land, and so it has been ever since the first stratum of
limestone was formed out of the remains of the animals and plants of the
sea. The rate of the accumulation of stalagmite in caverns is
necessarily variable, since it is determined by the presence of varying
currents of air. In the Ingleborough cavern a stalagmite, measured in
1839 and in 1873, is growing at the rate of .2946 in. per annum. It is
obvious, therefore, that the vast antiquity of deposits containing
remains of man underneath layers of stalagmite cannot be inferred from a
thickness of a few inches or even of a few feet.
The intimate relation which exists between caves and ravines renders it
extremely probable that many of the latter have been originally
subterranean watercourses, which have been unroofed by the degradation
of the rock. In all limestone districts ravines are to be found
continued in the same direction as the caves, and the process of
atmospheric erosion may be seen in the fallen blocks of stone which
generally are to be met with at the mouths of the caverns. In
illustration of this the valley and caves of Weathercote, in Yorkshire,
may be quoted, or the source of the Axe at Wookey; and the ravine formed
in this way has very frequently been widened out into a valley by the
action of subaerial waste, or by the grinding of glaciers through it
during the glacial stage of the Pleistocene period.
For further details as to the physical history of caverns we must
refer the reader to the works quoted at the end of this article, by
E.A. Martel, the intrepid explorer of most of the large European
caves, including those of Great Britain and Ireland. The history of
the _Glacieres_ or Ice-caves will be found in Browne's _Ice Caves in
France and Switzerland_.
_Classification._--The caves which have offered shelter to the
_mammalia_ are classified according to their contents, and are of
various ages, ranging from the Pliocene to the present day. (1) Those
containing the Pliocene _mammalia_ belong to that age. (2) Those with
the remains of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and other extinct species,
or with paleolithic man (see ARCHAEOLOGY), are termed Pleistocene. These
are sometimes called Quaternary, under the mistaken idea that they
belong to an age succeeding the Tertiary period. (3) Those which contain
the remains of the domestic animals in association with the remains of
man either in the Neolithic, Bronze or Iron stages of civilization are
termed Prehistoric. (4) The fourth group consists of those which can be
brought into relation with the historic period, and are therefore termed
Historic.
_The Pliocene Caves._--It is a singular fact, only to be explained by
the vast denudation of the earth's surface since the Pliocene Age, that
only one cave referable to that age has as yet been discovered, that at
Doveholes near Buxton, Derbyshire, described by Boyd Dawkins in 1903
(_Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._). The cave consists of a large horizontal
chamber and a small passage, connected with a swallow-hole close by, and
exposed in the working face of a quarry in 1901, at a depth of about 40
ft. from the surface. The locality is in the limestone plateau, 1158 ft.
high, which forms the divide between the waters flowing into the Mersey
on the west and the Humber on the east. Both swallow-hole and cave were
completely blocked up with debris, and the latter was filled with red
and yellow clay, horizontally stratified and containing pebbles of
sandstone from the neighbouring ridge of Axe Edge, and bones and teeth
of fossil mammals, some waterworn and others without traces of transport
by water. All the mammals belong to well-known species found in the
Pliocene strata of East Anglia, and in Auvergne and Italy. Among them
were the sabre-toothed lion (_Machairodus crenatidens_), the hyena of
Auvergne, the mastodon, and the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_),
and rhinoceros (_R. Etruscus_), and Steno's horse. Most of the bones had
evidently been gnawed by hyenas and accumulated in one of their dens,
and had afterwards been carried by water into the chambers deep down in
the rock, where they were found. Since that time the general level of
the district has been lowered by denudation to an extent of more than
230 ft., and all the hyena dens destroyed with the Pliocene surface not
only in this district but generally over the world. In this case a
covering of limestone some 270 ft. thick, including the depth from the
present surface, protected the remains from the denuding forces.
_The Pleistocene Caves._--The search after _ebur fossile_ or unicorns'
horn, or in other words the fossil bones which ranked high in the
_materia medica_ of the 16th and 17th centuries, led to the discovery of
the ossiferous caverns of the Harz Mountains, and of Hungary and
Franconia. The famous cave of Gailenreuth in the last of these districts
was explored by Goldfuss in 1810. The bones of the hyena, lion, wolf,
fox and stag, which it contained, were identified by Baron Cuvier, and
some of the skulls have been proved by Busk to belong to the grizzly
bear. They were associated with the bones of the reindeer, horse and
bison, as well as with those of the great cave bear. These discoveries
were of very great interest, because they established the fact that the
above animals had lived in Germany in ancient times. The first bone cave
systematically explored in England was one at Oreston near Plymouth in
1816, which proved that an extinct species of rhinoceros (_R.
leptorhinus_) lived in that district. Four years later the famous hyena
den at Kirkdale in Yorkshire was explored by Buckland. He brought
forward proof that it had been inhabited by hyenas, and that the broken
and gnawed bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, stag, bison and horse
belonged to animals which had been dragged in for food. He pointed out
that all these animals had lived in Yorkshire in ancient times, and that
it was impossible for the carcases of the rhinoceros, hyena and mammoth
to have been floated from tropical regions into the places where he
found their bones. He subsequently investigated bone caves in
Derbyshire, South Wales and Somerset, as well as in Germany, and
published his _Reliquiae Diluvianae_ in 1822, a work which laid the
foundations of the new science of cavehunting in this country. The
well-known cave of Kent's Hole near Torquay furnished McEnery, between
the years 1825 and 1841, with the first flint implements discovered in
intimate association with the bones of extinct animals. He recognized
the fact that they proved the existence of man in Devonshire while those
animals were alive, but the idea was too novel to be accepted by his
contemporaries. His discoveries have since been verified by the
subsequent investigations carried on by Godwin Austen, and ultimately by
the committee of the British Association, which worked for several years
under the guidance of Pengelly. There are four distinct strata in the
cave. 1st, The surface is composed of dark earth, and contains medieval
remains, Roman pottery and articles which prove that it was in use
during the Iron, Bronze and Neolithic Ages. 2nd, Below this is a
stalagmite floor, varying in thickness from 1 to 3 ft., and covering
(3rd) the red earth, which contained bones of the hyena, lion, mammoth,
rhinoceros and other animals, in association with flint implements and
an engraved antler, which proved man to have been an inhabitant of the
cavern during the time of its deposition. 4th, Filling the bottom of the
cave is a hard breccia, with the remains of bears and flint implements,
in the main ruder than those found above; in some places it was no less
than 12 ft. thick. The most remarkable animal found in Kent's Hole is
the sabre-toothed carnivore, _Machairodus latidens_ of Owen. While the
value of McEnery's discoveries was in dispute the exploration of the
cave of Brixham near Torquay in 1858 proved that man was coeval with the
extinct mammalia, and in the following year additional proof was offered
by the implements that were found in Wookey Hole. Similar remains have
been met with in the caves explored since that time in Wales, and in
England as far north as Derbyshire (Creswell), proving that palaeolithic
man hunted the mammoth and rhinoceros and other extinct animals over the
whole of southern and middle England.
The discoveries in Kent's Hole and in the Creswell caves prove further
that palaeolithic man was in two stages of civilization--the ruder or
riverdrift man, with implements of the type found in the river gravels
(see ARCHAEOLOGY; and PALAEOLITHIC) being the older; and the more highly
advanced, or the cave-man, mainly characterized by the better
implements, and a singular facility in depicting animal life (as shown
by the figure of a horse incised on the fragment of a bone found in the
Creswell caves), being the newer. We may also conclude from the absence
of palaeolithic implements from the glaciated regions in which most of
these caves occur, that both riverdrift and cave-men dwelt in middle and
northern Britain in the pre-glacial age, their remains being protected
in the caverns from the denuding forces that removed all traces of their
existence from the surface of the ground in glacial and post-glacial
times. The riverdrift man is, however, proved to be post-glacial in
southern and eastern England, by the occurrence of his implements in the
river gravels of that age. Both these peoples inhabited southern England
and the continent before and after the glacial period. The riverdrift
man, whose implements occur in river deposits in middle and southern
Europe, in Africa, Palestine and Hindustan, is everywhere in the same
age of primitive barbarism, and has not as yet been identified with any
living race. The cave-men are in a higher and more advanced stage, and
led a life in Europe identical with that of the Eskimos in the Arctic
regions.
_The Pleistocene Caves of the European Continent._--The researches of
Mortillet have proved that the same two groups of cave-dwellers occur in
the caves of France, the older being represented by the Chelleen and
Mousterien sections, and the newer by that of Solutre and La Madelaine.
To the former belong the human remains found in the caverns of Spy and
Neanderthal, which prove that the riverdrift man had "the most brutal of
all known human skulls." To the latter we must assign all the caves and
rock-shelters of Perigord, with the better implements, explored by
Lartet and Christy in 1863-1864 in the valleys of the Vezere and
Dordogne. These offer as vivid a picture of the life of the cave-men as
that revealed of Italian manners in the 1st century by the buried cities
of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The old floors of human occupation consist
of broken bones of animals killed in the chase, mingled with rude
implements and weapons of bone and unpolished stone, and with charcoal
and burnt stones, which indicate the position of the hearths. Flakes
without number, awls, lance-heads, hammers and saws made of flint rest
_pele-mele_ with bone needles, sculptured reindeer antlers, arrowheads
and harpoons, and bones of the reindeer, bison, horse, ibex, Saiga
antelope and musk sheep. These singular accumulations of debris mark the
places where the ancient hunters lived, and are merely the refuse cast
aside. The reindeer formed by far the greater portion of the food, and
must have lived in enormous herds at that time in the centre of France.
From this, as well as from the presence of the most arctic of the
herbivores, the musk sheep, we may infer the severe climate of that
portion of France at that time. Besides these animals the cave bear and
lion have been met with in one, and the mammoth in five localities, and
their remains bear marks of cutting or scraping which showed they fell a
prey to the hunters. The most remarkable remains left behind in these
refuse heaps are the sculptured reindeer antlers and figures engraved on
fragments of schist and on ivory. A well-defined outline of an ox stands
out boldly from one piece of antler; a second represents a reindeer
kneeling down in an easy attitude with his head thrown up in the air so
that the antlers rest on the shoulders, and the back forms an even
surface for a handle, which is too small to be grasped by an ordinary
European hand; in a third a man stands close to a horse's head, and on
the other side of the same cylinder are two heads of bisons drawn with
sufficient clearness to ensure recognition by any one who has seen that
animal. On a fourth the natural curvature of one of the tines has been
taken advantage of by the artist to engrave the head and the
characteristic recurved horns of the ibex; and on a fifth horses are
represented with large heads, upright dishevelled manes and shaggy
ungroomed tails. The most striking figure is that of the mammoth
engraved on a fragment of its own tusk; the peculiar spiral curvature of
the tusk and the long mane, which are now not to be found in any living
elephant, prove that the original was familiar to the eye of the artist.
These drawings probably employed the idle hours of the hunter, and hand
down to us the scenes which he witnessed in the chase. They are full of
artistic feeling and are evidently drawn from life. The mammoth is
engraved in its own ivory, and the reindeer and the stag on their
respective antlers. Further researches have revealed the fact that in
Auvergne and in the Pyrenees the cave-men ornamented some of their caves
with incised figures and polychrome frescoes of the wild animals.
Riviere has discovered on the walls of the grotto of La Mouthe
(Dordogne) three large hunting scenes, one with bisons and horses, a
second representing a primitive hut, a bison, reindeer, ibex and
mammoth, and a third with a mammoth, hinds and horses. In the Pyrenees
similar frescoes have been described by Cartailhac and Breuil. They are
on the walls of the cavern and roof of Altamira, and on the walls of
Marsoulas. The outlines have been engraved first, and afterwards filled
in with colour in brown and red ochre and black oxide of manganese.
The cave-men ranged over middle Europe as far south as the Pyrenees and
the Alps, and inhabited the caverns of Belgium and Germany, Hungary and
Switzerland. Their remains have not as yet been met with in southern
Europe. They lived by hunting and fishing, they were fire users, and lit
up the darkness of their caves with stone lamps filled with fat
(Altamira). They were clad in skins sewn together with sinews of
reindeer or strips of intestines. They used huts as well as caves for
habitation. They had a marvellous facility for drawing animal figures.
They possessed no domestic animals, nor were they acquainted with
spinning or with the potter's art. We have no evidence that they buried
their dead--the interments, such as those of Aurignac, Les Eyzies and
Mentone, most probably belonging to a later age.
If these remains be compared with those of existing races, it will be
found that the cave-men were in the same hunter stage of civilization as
the Eskimos, and that they are unlike any other races of hunters. If
they were not allied to the Eskimos by blood, there can be no doubt that
they handed down to the latter their art and their manner of life. The
bone needles, and many of the harpoons, as well as the flint spearheads,
arrowheads and scrapers, are of precisely the same form as those now in
use amongst the Eskimos. The artistic designs from the caves of France,
Belgium and Switzerland, are identical in plan and workmanship with
those of the Eskimos, with this difference only, that the hunting scenes
familiar to the Palaeolithic cave-dwellers were not the same as those
familiar to the inhabitants of the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Each
represented the animals which he knew, and the whale, walrus and seal
were unknown to the inland dwellers of Aquitaine, just as the mammoth,
bison and wild horse are unknown to the Eskimos. The reindeer, which
they both knew, is represented in the same way by both. The practice of
accumulating large quantities of the bones of animals round their
dwelling-places, and the habit of splitting the bones for the sake of
the marrow, are the same in both. The hides were prepared with the same
sort of instruments, and the needles with which they were sewn together
are of the same pattern. The stone lamps were used by both. In both
there was the same disregard of sepulture. All these facts can hardly be
mere coincidences caused by both peoples leading a savage life under
similar conditions. The conclusion, therefore, seems inevitable that, so
far as we have any evidence of the race to which the cave-dwellers
belong, that evidence points only in the direction of the Eskimos. It
is to a considerable extent confirmed by a consideration of the animals
found in the caves. The reindeer and musk sheep afford food to the
Eskimos now in the Arctic Circle, just as they afforded it to the
cave-men in Europe; and both these animals have been traced by their
remains from the Pyrenees to the north-east through Europe and Asia as
far as the very regions in which they now live. The mammoth and bison
also have been tracked by their remains in the frozen river gravels and
morasses through Siberia as far as the American side of Bering Strait.
Palaeolithic man appeared in Europe with the arctic mammalia, lived in
Europe with them, and in all human probability retreated to the
north-east along with them.
There are refuse heaps in north-eastern Siberia containing the remains
of the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros as well as the reindeer and musk
sheep, which may be referred with equal justice to the cave-men or to
the Eskimos.
_Ancient Geography of Europe._--The remains of man and the animals
described in the preceding paragraphs have been introduced into the
caves either by man or the wild beasts, or by streams of water, which
may or may not now occupy their ancient courses; and the fact that the
same species are to be met with in the caves of France, Switzerland and
Britain implies that our island formed part of the continent, and that
there were no physical barriers to prevent their migration from the Alps
as far to the north-west as Ireland.
The same conclusion may be gathered from the exploration of caves in the
south of Europe, which has resulted in the discovery of African species,
in Gibraltar, Sicily and Malta. In the first of these the spotted hyena,
the serval and Kaffre cat lie side by side with the horse, grizzly bear
and slender rhinoceros (_R. leptorhinus_)--see Falconer's
_Palaeontographical Memoirs_. To these African animals inhabiting the
Iberian peninsula in the Pleistocene age, Lartet has added the African
elephant and striped hyena, found in a stratum of gravel near Madrid,
along with flint implements. The hippopotamus, spotted hyena and African
elephant occur in the caves of Sicily, and imply that in ancient times
there was a continuity of land between that spot and Africa, just as the
presence of the _Elephas antiquus_ proves the non-existence of the
Straits of Messina during a portion, to say the least, of the
Pleistocene age. A small species of hippopotamus (_H. Pentlandi_) occurs
in incredible abundance in the Sicilian caves. It has also been found in
those of Malta along with an extinct pigmy elephant species (_E.
Melitensis_). It has also been discovered in Candia and in the
Peloponnese. For these animals to have found their way to these regions,
a continuity of land is necessary. The view advanced by Dr Falconer and
Admiral Spratt, that Europe was formerly connected with Africa by a
bridge of land extending southwards from Sicily, is fully borne out by
these considerations. The present physical geography of the
Mediterranean has been produced by a depression of land to the amount of
about 400 fathoms, by which the Sicilo-African and Ibero-African
barriers have been submerged, and Crete and Malta separated from the
South-European continent. It is extremely probable that this submergence
took place at the same time that the adjoining sea-bottom was elevated
to about the same amount so as to constitute that region now known as
the Sahara.
_Pleistocene Caves of the Americas and Australia._--The Pleistocene
caverns of the Euro-Asiatic continent contain the progenitors of the
animals now alive in some parts of the Old World, the extinct forms
being closely allied to those now living in the same geographical
provinces. Those of Brazil and of Pennsylvania present us with animals
whose nearest analogues are to be found in North and South America, such
as sloths, armadillos and agoutis. Those, again, of Australia present us
with marsupials (_metatheria_) only, allied to, or identical with, those
of that most ancient continent. The extinct forms in each case are
mainly those of the larger animals, which, from their large size, and
low fecundity, would be specially liable to be beaten in the battle for
life by their smaller and more fertile contemporaries, and less likely
to survive those changes in their environment which have undoubtedly
taken place in the long lapse of ages. It is, therefore, certain that
the mammalian life in the Old, New and Australian worlds, was as well
marked out into geographical provinces in the Pleistocene age as at the
present time, and that it has been continuous in these areas from that
remote time to the present day.
_Prehistoric Caves of Neolithic Age in Europe._--The prehistoric caves
are distinguished from Pleistocene by their containing the remains of
domestic animals, and by the wild animals to which they have afforded
shelter belonging to living species. They are divisible into three
groups according to the traces of man which occur in them--into the
Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages.
The Neolithic caves are widely spread throughout Europe, and have been
used as the habitations and tombs of the early races who invaded Europe
from the East with their flocks and herds. The first of these
systematically explored was at Perthi Chwareu, near the village of
Llandegla, Denbighshire, in 1869. In the following years five others
were discovered close by, as well as a second group in the neighbourhood
of Cefn on the banks of the Elwy. They contained polished celts, flint
flakes, rude pottery and human skeletons, along with the broken bones of
the pig, dog, horse, Celtic shorthorn and goat. The remains of the wild
animals belong to the wolf, fox, badger, bear, wild boar, stag, roe,
hare and rabbit. Most of the bones were broken or cut, and the whole
group was obviously an accumulation which resulted from these caves
having been used as dwellings. They had subsequently been used for
burial. The human skeletons in them were of all ages, from infancy to
old age; and the interments had been successive until each became
filled. The bodies were buried in the contracted posture which is so
characteristic of Neolithic interments generally. The men to whom these
skeletons belonged were a short race, the tallest being about 5 ft. 6
in., and the shortest 4 ft. 10 in.; their skulls are orthognathic, or
not presenting jaws advancing beyond a vertical line dropped from the
forehead, in shape long or oval, and of fair average capacity. The face
was oval, and the cheek bones were not prominent. Some of the
individuals were characterized by a peculiar flattening of the shinbone
(platycnemism), which probably stood in relation to the free action of
the foot that was not hampered by the use of a rigid sole or sandal.
This, however, cannot be looked upon as a race character, or as a
tendency towards a simian type of leg. These Neolithic cave-dwellers
have been proved to be identical in physique with the builders of the
cairns and tumuli which lie scattered over the face of Great Britain and
Ireland. (See Thurnam, _Crania Britannica_.) They have also been met
with abundantly in France. In the Caverne de l'Homme Mort, for example,
in the department of Lozere, explored in 1871, the association of
remains was of precisely the same nature as those mentioned above, and
the human skeletons were of the same small type. The same class of
remains has also been discovered in Gibraltar, in the caves of Windmill
Hill, and some others. The human remains examined by Busk are of
precisely the same type as those of Denbighshire. In the work of Don
Manuel Gongora J. Martinez (_Antiguedades prehistoricas de Andalusia_,
1868), several interments are described in the cave of Murcielagos,
which penetrates the limestone out of which the grand scenery of the
southern Sierra Nevada has been to a great extent carved. In one place a
group of three skeletons was met with, one of which was adorned with a
plain coronet of gold, and clad in a tunic made of esparto grass finely
plaited, so as to form a pattern like that on some of the gold ornaments
in Etruscan tombs. In a second spot farther within, twelve skeletons
formed a semicircle round one covered with a tunic of skin, and wearing
a necklace of esparto grass, ear-rings of black stone, and ornaments of
shell and wild boar tusk. There were other articles of plaited esparto
grass, such as baskets and sandals. There were also flint flakes,
polished-stone axes, implements of bone and wood, together with pottery
of the same type as that from Gibraltar. The same class of remains have
been discovered in the Woman's Cave, near Alhama de Granada. From the
physical identity of the human remains in all these cases it maybe
inferred that in the Neolithic Age a long-headed, small race inhabited
the Iberian peninsula, extending through France, as far north as
Britain, and to the north-west as far as Ireland--a race considered by
Professor Busk "to be at the present day represented by at any rate a
part of the population now inhabiting the Basque provinces." This
identification of the ancient Neolithic cave-dwellers with the modern
Basque-speaking inhabitant of the western Pyrenees is corroborated by
the elaborate researches of Broca, Virchow and Thurnam on modern Basque
skulls. It may, therefore, be concluded that in the Neolithic Age an
Iberian population occupied the whole of the area mentioned above,
inhabiting caves and burying their dead in caves and chambered tombs,
and possessed of the same habits of life. The remains of the same small,
oval-featured, long-headed race have been found in Belgium in the cave
of Chauvaux, and they have been described by Sergi in southern Europe
under the name of the Mediterranean race.
There is no evidence that any other race except the Iberic buried their
dead in the caves of Britain in the Neolithic Age. In Belgium, however,
the exploration of the cave of Sclaigneaux by Soreil proves that
broad-headed men of the type defined by Huxley and Thurnam as
brachycephalic, and characterized by high cheek-bones, projecting
muscles and large stature, the average height being 5 ft. 8.4 in.
(Thurnam), inhabited and buried their dead in the caves of that region.
In France they occur in the sepulchral cave of Orrouy (Oise) in
association with those of the Iberic type. They have also been met with
in Gibraltar. This type is undistinguishable from the Celtic (Goidelic)
or Gaulish, found so abundantly in the chambered tombs of the Neolithic
Age in France. Both these ancient races are represented at the present
day by the Basques and Aquitanians of France and Spain, and by the Celts
or Gauls of France, Britain and the Mediterranean border of Spain, their
relative antiquity being proved by an appeal to their history and
geographical distribution. For just as the earliest records show that
the Iberic power extended as far north as the Loire, and as far east as
the Rhone, so we have proof of the gradual retrocession of the Iberic
frontier southwards, under the attacks of the successive Celtic hordes,
until ultimately we find the latter in possession of a considerable part
of southern Spain, forming by their union with the conquered the
powerful nation of Celt-Iberi. The Iberians were in possession of the
continent before they were dispossessed by the Goidels, and at a later
time by the Brythons. They are recognized by Tacitus in Britain in the
Silures of Wales; and they are still to be seen in the small, dark,
lithe inhabitants of North Wales. The discovery of the characteristic
skulls of both these races in the same family vault in the cave of Gop
near Prestatyn, Flintshire, proves that the two races were mingled
together in Britain as far back as the Bronze Age.
From the present distribution of this non-Aryan race it is obvious that
they were gradually pushed back westward by the advance of tribes coming
from the East, and following those routes which were subsequently taken
by the Low and High Germans.
The exploration of the Grotta dei Colombi, in the island of Palmaria,
overlooking the Gulf of Spezzia, in 1873, proves that the stories
scattered through the classical writers, that the caves on the
Mediterranean shores were inhabited by cannibals, are not altogether
without foundation. In it broken and cut bones of children and young
adults were found along with those of the goat, hog, fox, wolf,
wild-cat, flint flakes, bone implements and shells perforated for
suspension.
_Prehistoric Caves of Bronze and Iron Ages._--The extreme rarity of
articles of bronze in the European caves implies that they were rarely
used by the Bronze folk for habitation or burial. Bronze weapons mingled
with gold ornaments have, however, been discovered in the Heatheryburn
cave near Stanhope, Durham, as well as in those of Kirkhead in Cartmell,
in Thor's cave in Staffordshire, and the Cat Hole in Gower in
Glamorganshire. In the Iberian peninsula the cave of Cesareda, explored
by Signor Delgado, in the valley of the Tagus, contained bronze
articles, associated with broken and cut human bones, as well as those
of domestic animals, rendering it probable that cannibalism was
practised in early times in that region. Busk believes, however, that
the facts are insufficient to support the charge of cannibalism against
the ancient Portuguese.
Caves containing articles of iron, and therefore belonging to that
division of the prehistoric age, are so unimportant that they do not
deserve notice in this place. As man increased in civilization he
preferred to live in houses of his own building, and he no longer buried
his dead in the natural sepulchres provided for him in the rock.
Prehistoric caves have been rarely explored in extra-European areas.
Among those which abound in Palestine, one in Mount Lebanon, examined by
Canon Tristram, contained flint implements along with charcoal and
broken bones and teeth, some of which may be referred to a small ox,
undistinguishable from the small short-horn, _Bos longifrons_. In North
America the remains found by F.W. Putnam in the caves of Kentucky,
consisting of moccasins, rudely-plaited cloth, and other articles, may
be referred to the same division.
_Historic Caves in Britain._--The historic caves have only attracted
notice in fairly recent years, and in Britain alone, principally through
the labours of the Settle Cave Committee from the year 1869 to the
present day. To them is due the exploration of the Victoria cave, which
had been discovered and partially investigated as early as the year
1838. It consists of three large ill-defined chambers opening on the
face of the cliff, 1450 ft. above the sea, and filled with debris very
nearly up to the roof. It presented three distinct eras of
occupation--one by hyenas, which dragged into it rhinoceroses, bisons,
mammoths, horses, reindeer and bears. This was defined from the next
occupation, which is probably of the Neolithic Age, by a layer of grey
clay, on the surface of which rested a bone harpoon and a few flint
flakes and bones. Then after an interval of debris at the entrance was a
layer of charcoal, broken bones, fragments of old hearths, and numerous
instruments of savage life associated with broken pottery, Roman coins,
and the rude British imitations of them, various articles of iron, and
elaborate personal ornaments, which implied a considerable development
of the arts. The evidence of the coins stamps the date of the occupation
of the cave to be between the first half of the 5th century and the
English conquest. Some of the brooches present a peculiar flamboyant and
spiral pattern in relief, of the same character as the art of some of
the illuminated manuscripts, as for example one of the Anglo-Saxon
gospels at Stockholm, and of the gospels of St Columban in Trinity
College, Dublin. It is mostly allied to that work which is termed by
Franks late Celtic. From its localization in Britain and Ireland, it
seems to be probable that it is of Celtic derivation; and if this view
be accepted, there is nothing at all extraordinary in its being
recognized in the illuminated Irish gospels. Ireland, in the 6th and 7th
centuries, was the great centre of art, civilization and literature; and
it is only reasonable to suppose that there would be intercourse between
the Irish Christians and those of the west of Britain, during the time
that the Romano-Celts, or Brit-Welsh, were being slowly pushed westwards
by the heathen English invader. Proof of such an intercourse we find in
the brief notice of the _Annales Cambriae_, in which Gildas, the
Brit-Welsh historian, is stated to have sailed over to Ireland in the
year A.D. 565. It is by no means improbable that about this time there
was a Brit-Welsh migration into Ireland, as well as into Brittany.
Objects with these designs found in Germany are probably directly or
indirectly due to the Irish missionaries, who spread Christianity
through those regions. The early Christian art in Ireland grew out of
the late Celtic, and is to a great extent free from the influence of
Rome, which is stamped on the Brit-Welsh art of the same age in this
country.
Several other ornaments with enamel deserve especial notice. The enamel,
composed of red, blue and yellow, has been inserted into the hollows in
the bronze, and then heated so as to form a close union with it. They
are of the same design as those which have been met with in late Roman
tumuli in this country, and in places which are mainly in the north.
They all belong to a class named late Celtic by Franks, and are
considered by him to be of British manufacture. This view is supported
by the only reference to the art of enamelling furnished by the
classical writers. Philostratus, a Greek sophist in the court of Julia
Domna, the wife of the emperor Severus, writes, "It is said that the
barbarians living in the ocean pour these colours (those of
horse-trappings) on heated bronze, and that these adhere, grow as hard
as stone, and preserve the designs that are made in them." It is worthy
of remark that, since the emperor Severus built the wall which bears his
name, marched in person against the Caledonians, and died at York, the
account of the enamels may have reached Philostratus from the very
district in which the Victoria Cave is situated.
Associated with these were bronze ornaments inlaid with silver, and
miscellaneous iron articles, among which was a Roman key. Remains of
this kind have been met with in the Albert and Kelko caves in the
neighbourhood, in that of Dowkerbottom near Arncliffe, in that of
Kirkhead on the northern shore of Morecambe Bay, in Poole's Cavern near
Buxton, and in Thor's Cave near Ashbourne, and over a wide area ranging
from Yorkshire and the Lake district southwards into Somerset and Devon.
_List of Principal Animals and Objects found in Brit-Welsh
Strata in Caves._
Thor's Cave.----------------------+
Poole's Cavern.------------------+ |
Kirkhead.--------------+ | |
Dowkerbottom.----------+ | | |
Kelko.------+ | | | |
Victoria.--+ | | | | |
| | | | | |
+---------------------------------------+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+-|-+
| Animals. | v | v | v | v | v | v |
+---------------------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|DOMESTIC-- | | | | | | |
| _Canis familiaris_. Dog | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| _Sus scrofa_. Pig | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| _Equus caballus_. Horse | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| _Bos longifrons_. Celtic short-horn | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| _Capra hircus_. Goat | X | X | X | X | X | ? |
| | | | | | | |
|WILD-- | | | | | | |
| _Canis vulpes_. Fox | X | | X | X | X | ? |
| _Meles taxus_. Badger | X | | X | | | X |
| _Cervus elaphus_. Stag | X | | X | X | X | ? |
| _Cervus capreolus_. Roe | X | | X | X | | ? |
| | | | | | | |
| Roman coins, or imitations | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Enamelled ornaments, in bronze | X | X | X | X | | |
| Bronze ornaments, inlaid with silver | X | X | X | | X | |
| Iron articles | X | X | X | | X | X |
| Samian ware | X | | X | | X | X |
| Black ware | X | X | X | | X | X |
| Bone spoon fibulae | X | X | X | | | |
| Bone combs | X | X | X | | | X |
+---------------------------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+
It is obvious in all these cases that men accustomed to luxury and
refinement were compelled, by the pressure of some great calamity, to
flee for refuge to caves with whatever they could transport thither of
their property. The number of spindle-whorls and personal ornaments
imply that they were accompanied by their families. We may also infer
that they were cut off from the civilization to which they had been
accustomed, because in some cases they extemporized spindle-whorls out
of fragments of Samian ware, instead of using those which were expressly
manufactured for the purpose. Why the caves were inhabited is
satisfactorily explained by an appeal to contemporary history. In the
pages of Gildas, in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, and in the _Annales
Cambriae_, we have a graphic picture of that long war of invasion by
which the inhabitants of the old Roman province of Britannia were driven
back by the Jutes, Angles and Saxons, who crossed over with their
families and household stuff. Slowly, and in the chances of a war which
extended through three centuries, they were gradually pushed back into
Cumberland, Wales and West Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. While this war
was going on the coinage became debased and Roman coins afforded the
patterns for the small bronze minimi, which are to be met with equally
in these caves and in the ruins of Roman cities. As the tide of war
rolled to the west, the English tongue and, until towards the close of
the struggle, the worship of Thor and Odin supplanted the British tongue
and the Christian faith, and a rude barbarism replaced what was left of
the Roman civilization in the island. It is to this period that relics
of this kind in the caves must be assigned. They are traces of the
anarchy of those times, and complete the picture of the desolation of
Britain, revealed by the ashes of the cities and villas that were burnt
by the invader. They prove that the vivid account given by Gildas of the
straits to which his countrymen were reduced was literally true.
The shrines of Zeus in the Idaean and Dictaean caves have been explored
by Halbher and Orsi (_Antichita dell' antro de Zeus Ideo_) and by Arthur
Evans and Hogarth (_Journal of Hellenic Studies_). These discoveries
prove that the cult of Zeus began among the Mycenaean peoples some 2000
years B.C. according to Evans, and was practised far down into the later
Greek times. They show that the Greeks are indebted to the Mycenaean
peoples not only for their art, but for the chief of their divinities.
AUTHORITIES.--1. Britain: Boyd Dawkins, _Cave-hunting_ (1874); _Early
Man_ (1880); Mattel, _Irlande et cavernes anglaises_ (1897); Buckland,
_Reliquiae Diluvianae_ (1821); _Brit. Assoc. Reports_ (1860-1875);
_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ (1870-1876); _Quart. Geol. Journ._
(1860-1875); Pengelly, _Trans. Devonshire Association_. 2. The
European Continent: Martel, _Les Abimes_ (1894); Cartailhac and
Breuil, _L'Anthropologie_, xv., xvi.; Lartet and Christy, _Reliquiae
Aquitanicae; Internat. Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology_; Marcel de
Serres, _Les Ossemens fossiles de Lunel Viel_; Dupont, _L'Homme
pendant les ages de la pierre dans les environs de Dinant-sur-Meuse_;
Schmerling, _Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles decouverts dans les
cavernes de Liege_; Merk, _Excavations at Kesserloch_, transl. J.E.
Lee (1876). For the chief American caves, see LURAY CAVERN, MAMMOTH
CAVE, WYANDOTTE CAVE, COLOSSAL CAVERN, JACOB'S CAVERN. (W. B. D.)
CAVEA, the Latin name given to the subterranean cells in which the wild
beasts were confined prior to the combats in the Roman arena. The term
is sometimes applied to the amphitheatre (q.v.) itself.
CAVEAT (Latin for "let him beware," from _cavere_), in law, a notice
given by the party interested (caveator) to the proper officer of a
court of justice to prevent the taking of a certain step without
warning. It is entered in connexion with dealings in land registered in
the land registry, with the grant of marriage licences, to prevent the
issuing of a lunacy commission, to stay the probate of a will, letters
of administration, &c. Caveat is also a term used in United States
patent law (see PATENTS).
_Caveat emptor_ ("let the buyer beware") is a maxim which implies that
the responsibility for making a bad bargain over a purchase rests on the
purchaser. In an ordinary contract for the sale of goods, there is no
implied warranty or condition as to the quality or fitness for any
particular purpose of the goods supplied, with certain exceptions, and,
therefore, the buyer takes at his own risk. The maxim does not apply (a)
where the buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller
the particular purpose for which the goods are required, so as to show
that the buyer relies on the seller's skill or judgment, and that the
goods are of a description which it is in the course of the seller's
business to supply; (b) where goods are bought by description from a
seller who deals in goods of that description, for there is an implied
condition that the goods are of merchantable quality, though if the
buyer has actually examined the goods, there is no implied condition as
regards defects which the examination ought to have revealed; (c) where
the usage of trade annexes an implied warranty or condition to the goods
as to their quality or fitness for a particular purpose. The maxim of
_caveat emptor_ is said to owe its origin to the fact that in early
times sales of goods took place principally in market overt. (See
further SALE OF GOODS.)
CAVEDONE, JACOPO (1577-1660), Italian painter, born at Sassuolo in the
Modenese, was educated in the school of the Caracci, and under them
painted in the churches of Bologna. His principal works are the
"Adoration of the Magi," the "Four Doctors," and the "Last Supper"; and
more especially the "Virgin and Child in Glory," with San Petronio and
other saints, painted in 1614, and now in the Bolognese Academy.
Cavedone became an assistant to Guido Reni in Rome; his art was
generally of a subdued undemonstrative character, with rich Titianesque
colouring. In his declining years his energies broke down after his wife
had been accused of witchcraft, and after the death of a cherished son.
He died in extreme poverty, in a stable at Bologna.
CAVENDISH, GEORGE (1500-1562?), English writer, the biographer of
Cardinal Wolsey, was the elder son of Thomas Cavendish, clerk of the
pipe in the exchequer, and his wife, Alice Smith of Padbrook Hall. He
was probably born at his father's manor of Cavendish, in Suffolk. Later
the family resided in London, in the parish of St Alban's, Wood Street,
where Thomas Cavendish died in 1524. Shortly after this event George
married Margery Kemp, of Spains Hall, an heiress, and the niece of Sir
Thomas More. About 1527 he entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey as
gentleman-usher, and for the next three years he was divided from his
wife, children and estates, in the closest personal attendance on the
great man. Cavendish was wholly devoted to Wolsey's interests, and also
he saw in this appointment an opportunity to gratify his master-passion,
a craving "to see and be acquainted with strangers, in especial with men
in honour and authority." He was faithful to his master in disgrace, and
showed the courage of the "loyal servitor." It is plain that he enjoyed
Wolsey's closest confidence to the end, for after the cardinal's death
George Cavendish was called before the privy council and closely
examined as to Wolsey's latest acts and words. He gave his evidence so
clearly and with so much natural dignity, that he won the applause of
the hostile council, and the praise of being "a just and diligent
servant." He was not allowed to suffer in pocket by his fidelity to his
master, but retired, as it would seem, a wealthy man to his estate of
Glemsford, in West Suffolk, in 1530. He was only thirty years of age,
but his appetite for being acquainted with strange acts and persons was
apparently sated, for we do not hear of his engaging in any more
adventures. It is not to be doubted that Cavendish had taken down notes
of Wolsey's conversation and movements, for many years passed before his
biography was composed. At length, in 1557, he wrote it out in its final
form. It was not, however, possible to publish it in the author's
lifetime, but it was widely circulated in MS. Evidently one of these
MSS. fell into Shakespeare's hands, for that poet made use of it in his
_King Henry VIII._, although it is excessive to say, as Singer has done,
that Shakespeare "merely put Cavendish's language into verse." The book
was first printed in 1641, in a garbled text, and under the title of
_The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey_. The genuine text, from contemporary
MSS., was given to the world in 1810, and more fully in 1815. Until that
time it was believed that the book was the composition of George
Cavendish's younger brother William, the founder of Chatsworth, who also
was attached to Wolsey. Joseph Hunter proved this to be impossible, and
definitely asserted the claim of George. The latter is believed to have
died at Glemsford in or about 1562. The intrinsic value of Cavendish's
_Life of Cardinal Wolsey_ has long been perceived, for it is the sole
authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a
particularly interesting section of the history of England. Its
importance as a product of biographical literature was first emphasized
by Bishop Creighton, who insisted over and over again on the claim of
Cavendish to be recognized as the earliest of the great English
biographers and an individual writer of particular charm and
originality. He writes with simplicity and with a certain vivid
picturesqueness, rarely yielding to the rhetorical impulses which
governed the ordinary prose of his age. (E. G.)
CAVENDISH, HENRY (1731-1810), English chemist and physicist, elder son
of Lord Charles Cavendish, brother of the 3rd duke of Devonshire, and
Lady Anne Grey, daughter of the duke of Kent, was born at Nice in
October 1731. He was sent to school at Hackney in 1742, and in 1749
entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, which he left in 1753, without taking a
degree. Until he was about forty he seems to have enjoyed a very
moderate allowance from his father, but in the latter part of his life
he was left a fortune which made him one of the richest men of his time.
He lived principally at Clapham Common, but he had also a town-house in
Bloomsbury, while his library was in a house in Dean Street, Soho; and
there he used to attend on appointed days to lend the books to men who
were properly vouched for. So methodical was he that he never took down
a volume for his own use without entering it in the loan-book. He was a
regular attendant at the meetings of the Royal Society, of which he
became a fellow in 1760, and he dined every Thursday with the club
composed of its members. Otherwise he had little intercourse with
society; indeed, his chief object in life seems to have been to avoid
the attention of his fellows. With his relatives he had little
intercourse, and even Lord George Cavendish, whom he made his principal
heir, he saw only for a few minutes once a year. His dinner was ordered
daily by a note placed on the hall-table, and his women servants were
instructed to keep out of his sight on pain of dismissal. In person he
was tall and rather thin; his dress was old-fashioned and singularly
uniform, and was inclined to be shabby about the times when the
precisely arranged visits of his tailor were due. He had a slight
hesitation in his speech, and his air of timidity and reserve was almost
ludicrous. He was never married. He died at Clapham on the 24th of
February 1810, leaving funded property worth L700,000, and a landed
estate of L8000 a year, together with canal and other property, and
L50,000 at his bankers.