CHAPTER XXII.

CAVE IMPLEMENTS.

In this second division of my subject, I must pass in review a class

of implements of stone, which, though belonging to an earlier period

than those already described, it appeared to me to be better to take

second rather than first in order. My reasons for thus reversing what

might seem to be the natural arrangement of my subject, and ascending

instead of descending the stream of time, I have already to some

extent assigned. I need only now repeat that our sole chronology for

measuring the antiquity of such objects is by a retrogressive scale

from the present time, and not by a progression of years from any

remote given epoch; and that though we have evidence of the vast

antiquity of the class of implements which I am about to describe,

and may at the present moment regard them as the earliest known works

of man, yet we should gravely err, were we for a moment to presume

on the impossibility of still earlier relics being discovered. Had

they been taken first in order, it might have been thought that some

countenance was given to a belief that we had in these implements the

first efforts of human skill, and were able to trace the progressive

development of the industrial arts from the very cradle of our race.

Such is by no means the case. The investigators into the early history

of mankind are like explorers in search of the source of one of those

mighty rivers which traverse whole continents: we have departed from

the homes of modern civilization in ascending the stream, and arrived

at a spot where traces of human existence are but few, and animal

life has assumed strange and unknown forms; but further progress is

for the moment denied, and though we may plainly perceive that we are

nearer the source |474| of which we are in search, yet we know not at

what distance it may still be from us; nor, indeed, can we be certain

in what direction it lies, nor even whether it will ultimately be

discovered. Whether or no, traces of human existence will eventually

be found in deposits belonging to Miocene, or even earlier, times, I

may take this occasion of remarking that the evidence hitherto adduced

on this point by continental geologists is, to my mind, after full and

careful examination still very far from satisfactory. At the same time,

judging from all analogy, there can be but little doubt that the human

race will eventually be proved to date back to an earlier period than

the Pleistocene or Quaternary, though it will probably not be in Europe

that the evidence on this point will be forthcoming.

The instruments of stone, found in ossiferous caves and in ancient

alluvial deposits, associated with remains of a fauna now in great

part extinct, belong to a period which has been termed by Sir John

Lubbock, the Palæolithic, in contradistinction to the Neolithic Period,

the relics of which are usually found upon, or near, the surface

of the soil. By others, the more familiar, even if less accurately

discriminative, terms of Cave Period and River-drift, or even Drift

Period, have been adopted.

Though I propose in these pages to treat of the implements from the

caves and from the river-gravels separately, it must not be supposed

that there exists of necessity any demonstrable difference in the age

of the two classes of relics. On the contrary, though there can be but

little doubt that the deposition of the implement-bearing beds, both

in the one case and the other, extended over a very considerable space

of time, and that therefore neither all of the cave-deposits nor all

of the river-drifts can be regarded as absolutely contemporaneous; yet

there appears every probability that some, at least, of the deposits

in each of the two classes synchronize; and that some caves were being

partially filled with earth containing relics of human workmanship

and animal remains, at the same time that, in certain ancient

river-valleys, alluvial drifts were being formed with similar works of

man and bones of animals belonging to the same fauna, incorporated in

them.

And yet, as a rule, the character of a group of implements collected

from the cave-deposits differs in its general _facies_ from one

obtained from the old River-drifts. This is no doubt mainly due to the

different conditions under which the two deposits were |475| formed;

for, especially when they were undoubtedly human habitations, the

caves seem to have been under more favourable conditions both for the

reception and the preservation of a greater proportion of the smaller

forms of instruments than the River-drifts; but their comparative

scarcity in the collections formed from the latter is also no doubt

partly due to the difficulty in finding such minute objects when

imbedded in a mass of gravel, even had they remained uninjured in the

course of its deposition. On the other hand, the rarity of the larger

forms of implements in the cave deposits, appears to be due to these

instruments having been mainly used for what may be termed “out of

doors” purposes.

Again, though in some instances the River-drift and Cave-deposits

belong apparently to the same period, yet in others it seems possible

that we have, in the caves, relics derived from a period alike

unrepresented in the old alluvia and in the superficial soil; and which

may belong to an intermediate age, and thus possibly assist, especially

in the case of some caves in the neighbourhood of Mentone, to bridge

over the gap that would otherwise intervene between the River-drift

and the Surface Period. It is not, indeed, in our English caves, that

such good evidence of a sequence in the order of the deposition of

their contents can be observed, as in those of the south of France,

and of Belgium, in which a sort of chronological succession has been

pointed out by M. Gabriel de Mortillet and others, as will subsequently

be seen. It will of course be understood that this sequence in no way

refers to the occupation of caverns by man in modern, or even Neolithic

times. Many caves in this, as in other countries, have been the

retreats or dwelling-places of man at various, and often very remote,

periods: though subsequent to the time when their earlier contents

had been sealed up beneath a layer of stalagmite, itself a work of

centuries of slow deposition of carbonate of lime held in solution by

water infiltrating from above. It is owing to the occasional admixture

of the more recent remains with those of older date, either in the

progress of the excavation of the caverns, or by the burrowing of

animals, or in some cases possibly by pits having been sunk in the

floor of the cave by some of its successive human occupants, that doubt

has been thrown in former times on the value of the evidence afforded

by cavern-deposits, as to the co-existence of man with animals now

extinct, such as the Siberian mammoth and its common associate, the

woolly-haired rhinoceros. The more |476| careful researches of modern

times have, however, in most cases, removed all sources of error under

this head; and the fact of this co-existence being now established, we

are to a great extent able to eliminate the doubtful portions of the

older-recorded observations, and to give to the residue a value which

it did not formerly possess.

Before proceeding, however, to discuss any of the evidence afforded by

cavern-deposits on the existence of man and the nature of his tools and

implements in those early days, it will be well to say a few words both

as to the nature of ossiferous caves in general, and as to the probable

manner in which their contents were deposited in the positions in which

we now find them. In doing this, I shall be as brief as possible, and

will content myself with referring the reader, who is desirous of

further details, to works more strictly geological.[2377]

What must strike all observers at the outset is, that caverns vary

greatly both in their character and in their dimensions; some being

long and sinuous, in places contracting into narrow passages, and then

again expanding into halls more or less vast; while others are merely

vaulted recesses in the face of a rock, or even long grooves running

along the face of some almost perpendicular though inland cliff. Most

of the English ossiferous caverns belong to the former class, while

the majority of those of the Dordogne and some other parts of the

south of France belong to the latter. These recesses and rock-shelters

apparently owe their existence to a somewhat different cause from

that which produced the long sinuous cavities. They usually occur in

cliffs of which the stratification is approximately horizontal, but

where the different beds vary much in their degree of hardness and

permeability to water. The softer strata, underlying the harder masses,

are in consequence more liable to be acted upon by rain, wind, and

frost, so that they weather away faster, and leave deep recesses in the

face of the cliffs, admirably adapted for conversion, with but little

trouble, into dry and commodious shelters from the weather, which have

in consequence been seized on for habitation by man from the earliest

times to the present day. Caves of this character may possibly in

some rare instances have been due to the eroding action of the sea,

before the land was elevated to its present |477| level; but in most

cases they have originated from the atmospheric agencies that I have

mentioned, attacking most destructively the softer portions of the

rocks, which are usually of a calcareous nature.

The caverns of the other class also generally occur in limestone

districts, and seem in like manner to be mainly due to atmospheric

causes, though operating in a different manner. They usually appear

to have originated with some small crack or fissure in the rock,

along which, water falling on the surface was able to find its way to

some vent at a lower level; and this, by its continual passage, was

able to enlarge the channel along which it flowed. The mechanically

erosive force of pure water in passing over or even falling upon a

rock of moderate hardness is indeed but small, though its powers of

friction were long since recognized by that most enlightened of ancient

geologists, the poet Ovid,[2378] who classes its effects with the

wearing away of a ring upon the finger. Nor was Solomon’s likening

of the contentions of a wife to a continual dropping, without its

geological significance. But in the case of water derived from rain

falling on the surface, and passing through a fissure in a limestone

rock, its first effects are chemical rather than mechanical.[2379]

By contact with decaying vegetable matter the water becomes charged

with a certain amount of carbonic acid, and is rendered capable of

dissolving a portion of the calcareous rock through which it passes,

and thus carries it off in solution, while in so doing it acquires

the character known as “hard.” Taking the case of water delivered by

springs in the chalk, which has but a moderate degree of hardness, it

is proved by analysis to contain about seventeen grains of carbonate

of lime to the gallon. Now, out of a rainfall of say twenty-six inches

annually, it has been found by experiment, that in a chalk district

about nine inches would, in average seasons, make their way down to the

springs; and it may be readily calculated that at the rate of seventeen

grains to the gallon, the amount of dry chalk or carbonate of lime

dissolved by this quantity of water, and delivered by the springs, and

thus carried away, is, in each square mile of such a district, upwards

of one hundred and forty tons in each year, or about a |478| ton to

every four and a half acres. This serves to show how great are the

solvent powers of water charged with carbonic acid, and the extent

to which, in the course of centuries, it might remove the calcareous

rocks with which it came in contact. But when once by this action a

channel had been excavated sufficiently large to admit of the rapid

passage of a stream of water through it, and the circumstances of the

case allowed of such a stream, its enlargement would probably become

more rapid, as the water would be liable to be charged with sand and

small pebbles, the friction of which would materially conduce to the

removal of the rock, the varying hardness of which, combined with the

intersection of other channels and fissures, would probably lead to the

formation of chambers of various sizes along the course of the channel.

In some caverns, we find the streams of water, to which probably they

owe their existence, still flowing through them; but in others, the

external features of the surrounding country have so much changed since

their formation, that the gathering grounds for such streams have been

removed by denudation, and water now only finds its way into them by

slow percolation through the rock which forms their roof and walls.

It is this same process of denudation which, by removing some portion

of the rock in which the caverns were originally formed, has brought

them in communication with the outer world, and has thus rendered them

accessible to man.

Leaving out of the question the blocks and fragments of stone falling

in from the ceiling of the caverns, the methods by which the ossiferous

deposits in them may have been formed, are various. The bones may be

those of animals which have died in the caverns, or they may have been

brought there by beasts of prey, or by man, or by running water, or

possibly by several of these agencies combined.

In the case of the caves and rock-shelters of the Dordogne, and many

of those in Belgium, the deposits are almost exclusively neither

more nor less than refuse heaps, containing the bones, fractured and

unfractured, of animals which have served for human food, mixed with

which are the lost and waste tools, utensils, and weapons, and even the

cooking-hearths of the early cave-dwellers; so that in character they

closely resemble the kjökken-möddings of the Danish coasts; though,

from their position being usually inland, the marine shells in which

these latter abound are, for the most part, absent. The object in

resorting to the caves was, no |479| doubt, shelter; while the reason

for the Danish kjökken-möddings occurring along the coasts is to be

found in the fact, that the principal food of those who left these

heaps of refuse, was derived from the sea.

In other instances, the tenancy of a cave by man seems to have

alternated with that by bears, hyænas, or other predaceous animals;

so that the relics left by the two classes of occupants have become

more or less mixed, sometimes without the intervention of water, and

sometimes by its aid. In such caves, it is commonly the case that

the bones are imbedded in a red loamy matrix, to which the name of

“cave-earth” has been given, and which appears to consist, in a great

measure, of those portions of the limestone-rock that are insoluble

in water charged with carbonic acid.[2380] Such red loams are common

not only in caves, but on the surface of many calcareous rocks, and

would be liable to be brought into any place of resort of man or beast,

adhering to the feet and skin, especially in wet weather; though some

portion of what is found in the caves may be a kind of _caput mortuum_

left in position after dissolution and removal of the calcareous rock;

or it may be sediment deposited from turbid water.

Another important feature in caverns is the stalagmitic covering with

which the bone deposit is so frequently sealed up or converted into a

breccia. Like the stalactites on the ceiling, the stalagmite on the

floor is a gradually-formed laminated deposit, composed of thin films

of crystalline carbonate of lime, deposited from the water in which

it was held in solution as a bicarbonate, by the escape of the excess

of carbonic acid which rendered it soluble. I have already cited the

action of rain-water falling on a surface of limestone covered with

decaying vegetable matter as an agent in forming subterranean channels;

but we have here, curiously enough, the reverse action produced of

filling them up. For this to take place, contact with the air appears

to be necessary; so that at the time when a cavern was completely

filled with water, no calcareous spar would be deposited. If partially

filled, though stalactites might be formed, stalagmite would not; and

it is probably to some alternation of wet and dry conditions that

several beds of alluvium[2381] occasionally occur interstratified

between successive layers of stalagmite. When, as occasionally happens,

the |480| water percolating through the rock finds its way into the

cave by the walls rather than the roof, we find stalagmite only,

exhibiting its greatest thickness round the edges of the cave and

cementing its contents into a breccia. This is the case with some of

the caves of the Dordogne and the South of France, and does not seem

of necessity to imply any great alteration in the physical conditions

of the surrounding country since the caves were formed. It is also

possible that the floors of the caves have, by being trodden, become

more impervious to water than they originally were, and that a loose

mass of porous bones upon them may, by conducing to evaporation, have

caused a deposit of carbonate of lime from water which, had the caves

remained unoccupied, might have run through or over the floors without

forming such a deposit.

With the other class of long and tortuous caves we must, in nearly

all cases, recognize, with Sir Charles Lyell,[2382] three successive

phases:—1st, the period of the dissolution of the rock to form the

channel; 2nd, the time when the channel was traversed and enlarged

by subterranean currents of water; and, 3rd, the period when these

currents were diverted, and the cave became filled with air instead of

water.

The rate of deposit of stalagmitic matter varies so much with different

conditions, that its thickness affords no true criterion of the length

of time during which it has accumulated. Under ordinary circumstances,

however, a thickness of even a few inches requires a long period of

years for its formation.

Having made these few preliminary remarks as to the formation of

caverns and the deposits occurring in them, I proceed to notice some

of their characteristics in connection with the relics of human

workmanship found in the deposits, and in doing so cannot restrict

myself to British caves, but must refer also to some of those on the

Continent, which are more numerous, and have likewise furnished a more

extensive and varied series of remains.

It had not escaped the attention of early authors, that in remote

times _specus erant pro domibus_;[2383] and, to use the words of

Prometheus,[2384] “men lived like little ants beneath the ground in

the gloomy recesses of caves.” It is, however, strange to find a

Roman author recording the occurrence of worked flints in the caves

of the Pyrenees; for if we accept the description of the _ceraunia_

given |481| by Sotacus, and preserved by Pliny, of which mention has

already been made, there can be but little doubt of the term referring

either to stone hatchets, worked flints, or arrow-heads, of some such

kind as those still known as thunderbolts; and therefore that when

Claudian,[2385] early in the fifth century, wrote

“Pyrenæisque sub antris

Ignea flumineæ legere ceraunia nymphæ,”

he must have had in his mind some account of the occurrence of such

objects in that district, where so many discoveries of this character

have since been made.

The researches of MM. Tournal, de Christol, and Marcel de Serres, now

some sixty or seventy years ago, by which the co-existence of man with

many of the extinct mammals was rendered probable, if, indeed, not

actually proved, were directed to caverns which, though not in the

immediate neighbourhood of the Pyrenees, were still in the South of

France. These researches are well known to geologists, but the most

important discoveries are those made in more modern times, in caverns

principally in the Dordogne and other departments of the ancient

Province of Aquitaine, by the late Prof. E. Lartet[2386] and Mr.

Henry Christy, as well as by M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, the Marquis

de Vibraye, MM. Garrigou, Rames, Brun, Cazalis de Fondouce, Ferry,

Gervais, Cartailhac, Piette, Boule, Massénat, Chantre, and numerous

other active investigators.

The discoveries made by Dr. Schmerling[2387] in the caves of Belgium,

an account of which he published in 1833, showed that human bones,

as well as worked flints, and bone instruments were associated with

the remains of extinct animals in several instances; and, though not

gaining general acceptance at the time, have since been fully borne out

by the investigations so ably conducted by Dr. E. Dupont.

The late Prof. E. Lartet[2388] some years ago suggested a

classification of the different divisions of Time represented in

the French caves containing traces of man associated with various

animal bones, under successive heads, as the Ages of the Cave-bear,

the Mammoth, the Reindeer, and the Bison, in accordance with the

comparative abundance of the remains of each of these animals in |482|

the different caves. Had the conditions in all cases been the same,

there can be no doubt that any marked variations in the fauna of the

same region would afford valuable criteria for determining such a

chronological sequence. But such decided differences cannot at present

be traced; and inasmuch as the animal remains in the caverns under

consideration have, almost without exception, been introduced into the

caves by human agency, and been merely the refuse of the spoils of

the chase consumed by the old cave-dwellers, we may readily conceive

reasons why, without any great natural change in the fauna, the

proportionate numbers of the different animals eaten during a certain

number of years might vary in different caves. Still the effect of

human agency in causing an alteration in the larger mammalian fauna of

a district is great, and of this, researches in caverns may probably

afford evidence.

Dr. E. Dupont[2389] has adopted a somewhat similar, but more limited,

and therefore safer view with regard to the caverns of Belgium, and

has moreover correlated the cave-deposits with those of wider range.

The rolled pebbles and stratified clay of the river-valleys he regards

as synchronous with the deposits in certain caves belonging to what he

terms the Mammoth Period; and the angular gravels and brick-earth, of

somewhat later date, he connects with the caves of the Reindeer Period.

As will shortly be seen, there appears good reason for regarding the

two sets of caverns thus characterized, as belonging to different

ages; and if the use of the terms Mammoth and Reindeer Periods be not

supposed to limit the duration of the existence of those animals in

France and Belgium to so short a space of time, geologically speaking,

as that represented by the infilling of each set of caves, no harm can

arise from the adoption of the terms.

Under any circumstances, with our present knowledge, there seems a

sufficient variation in the proportion of the different animals one to

the other, and also in the character of the implements in different

caves, to justify the conclusion that the cave-remains of Western

Europe are memorials, not of some comparatively short Troglodyte

phase of the human race, but of a lengthened chapter in its history.

And yet this chapter seems to have been completely closed before the

implements belonging to the Neolithic or Surface Stone Period had come

into use; for though these also |483| occur in the more superficial

cavern-deposits, they are not only stratigraphically more recent than

the instruments often found imbedded deep below them, but are also

associated with a different and more modern fauna, and even with

domesticated animals, of which none are as yet known to have belonged

to the Palæolithic Period.

M. Gabriel de Mortillet,[2390] judging rather from the character of

the works of man found in the caves, and from what appears to be the

order of superposition in certain cases, than from the mammalian fauna,

has arranged them in a manner which to some extent coincides with the

views of M. Lartet and Dr. Dupont. To each division he has assigned the

name of some well-known deposit, such as he regards as being the most

characteristic in its contents.

As M. de Mortillet’s classification has now been almost universally

accepted, it will be well here to adopt it, though in some respects

it differs from the arrangement proposed in my first edition. I there

attempted to give references to the works in which the different caves

in France and other continental countries have been described, but,

at the present day, the number of caves explored is so great, and the

literature relating to them so extensive, that I must confine myself to

British caves, and make but passing reference to some of those in other

countries.

I take M. de Mortillet’s arrangement in ascending, and not in

descending geological order; that is to say, I here describe the older

deposits first. Leaving the Age of Chelles, or, as I prefer to call it,

of St. Acheul (ACHEULÉEN), which is characterized by the high-level

River-gravels, subsequently described, we come to:—

1. AGE OF LE MOUSTIER,[2391] DORDOGNE

(MOUSTÉRIEN).—Characteristics—Ovate-lanceolate implements much

resembling some of those from the River-gravels; large broad implements

and flakes worked on one face only into “choppers” or “side-scrapers,”

like those from High Lodge, Mildenhall; large subtriangular flakes

wrought at the edge into spear-head-like and round-ended forms; rough

“sling-stones” and flakes; scrapers not abundant.

An almost entire absence of instruments of bone; and a large proportion

of those of flint, of considerable size. |484|

Remains of mammoth and hyæna apparently more abundant than in the

following ages. Reindeer less dominant numerically than at Solutré or

la Madelaine. Bones comparatively scarce. No remains of birds or fish.

2. AGE OF SOLUTRÉ[2392] (SAÔNE ET LOIRE)

(SOLUTRÉEN).—Characteristics—Lance-heads or daggers delicately chipped

on both faces; lozenge and leaf-shaped arrow-heads (?) closely

resembling some of those of the Neolithic Period. They are all scarce.

Sharp knife-like flakes trimmed to a narrow point at one end from a

shoulder about midway of the blade; scrapers; borers.

Pointed lance-heads of bone or reindeer horn. Engraved bones, extremely

scarce, but a small figure of a reindeer carved in calcareous stone

found at Solutré. Some carvings in bone towards the end of the Period.

A few marine or fossil shells.

Fauna much as at la Madelaine. Several teeth of mammoth, _felis spelæa_

and _cervus megaceros_, found at Laugerie. Horse common; but at

Solutré, reindeer the principal food.

3. AGE OF LA MADELAINE, DORDOGNE (MAGDALÉNIEN).—Characteristics—Long

and well-shaped flint flakes and neatly-formed cores abundant, as are

also scrapers; but side-scrapers extremely rare, and the leaf-shaped

lance- and arrow-heads unknown. Pebbles with mortar-like depressions,

rounded hammer-stones, grooved sharpening-stones. Scraped hæmatite.

Saws of flint in some caves.

Pointed dart-heads, both plain and ornamented on the faces,

arrow-heads, of bone split at the base, as well as harpoon-heads formed

of reindeer horn or bone, barbed on one or both sides, and adapted to

fit in a socket at the end of the shaft. Perforated bone needles, often

of minute size.

Works of art, such as engravings on stone, bone, reindeer horn, and

ivory; carvings in most of these materials, perforated and carved

“bâtons de commandement” of reindeer horn. Ornaments formed of pierced

bones and teeth, and of fossil shells.

Fauna much as in other caves, but a larger proportion of reindeer than

horse. Mammoth remains scarce. Bones of birds and fish abundant.

In the cave of the Mas d’Azil[2393] was a layer of pebbles with |485|

various patterns painted upon them in red. Such pebbles have not

as yet been found in any British cave deposits. Some of the designs

curiously resemble early alphabetic characters. There is some doubt as

to the exact age of the contents of this cave, which not improbably may

be Neolithic.

Such is a general summary of what appear to be the characteristics of

these three divisions. It must, however, be remembered that, in some

caves at all events, there is a probability of the contents belonging

to more than one of these periods, where the occupation by man has been

of sufficiently extended duration.

M. Philippe Salmon[2394] has united the Palæolithic and Neolithic Ages

into one which he regards as continuous, and sub-divides into six

stages with transitions between them.

With regard to the fauna of the caves of Britain, I cannot do better

than refer to the comprehensive list published by Professor Boyd

Dawkins, F.R.S.;[2395] and will merely cite some of the principal

animals now either extinct or no longer found living in this country,

the remains of which have occurred in association with objects of

human manufacture in caverns:—_Spermophilus citillus_, pouched

marmot; _Mus lemmus_, lemming; _Lepus diluvianus_, extinct hare;

_Lagomys pusillus_, tail-less hare; _Ursus arctos_, brown bear; _Ursus

spelæus_, cave-bear; _Ursus ferox_, grizzly bear; _Hyæna crocuta_, var.

_spelæa_, cave-hyæna; _Felis leo_, var. _spelæa_, cave-lion; _Felis

pardus_, leopard; _Machairodus latidens_, sabre-toothed tiger; _Cervus

megaceros_, Irish elk; _Cervus tarandus_, reindeer; _Bos primigenius_,

urus; _Bison priscus_, bison or aurochs; _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_,

woolly-haired rhinoceros; _Elephas primigenius_, mammoth; _Hippopotamus

amphibius_, var. _major_, Hippopotamus. Further details as to the fauna

of Kent’s Cavern will be found on a subsequent page.

The fauna of the caves is in fact practically identical with that of

the River Gravels.

The same author[2396] has pointed out how vast is the difference

between the mammalian fauna of the Pleistocene, Quaternary, or

Palæolithic Period, and that of the Pre-historic or Neolithic Period.

“Out of forty-eight well-ascertained species living in the former,

only thirty-one were able to live on into the latter; and out of those

thirty-one, all, with the exception of six, |486| are still living in

our island. The cave-bear, cave-lion, and cave-hyæna had vanished away,

along with a whole group of pachyderms, and of all the extinct animals,

but one, the Irish elk, still survived. The reindeer, so enormously

abundant during the post-glacial epoch, lived on, greatly reduced in

numbers; while the red deer, which was rare, became very numerous, and

usurped those feeding grounds which formerly supported vast herds of

the reindeer. With this exception, all the Arctic group of mammalia,

such as the musk-sheep and the marmots, had retreated northwards; a

fact which shows that the climate of Britain during prehistoric times

was warmer, or rather less severe than during the former epoch.”

Only in the Neolithic Period do the goat, sheep, long-faced ox (_Bos

longifrons_), and dog, make their appearance in Britain.

This difference in the fauna is of great importance, as affording

some guide in judging of the antiquity of human remains when found

in caverns without any characteristic weapons or implements; such,

for instance, as the human skull cited by Prof. Boyd Dawkins[2397]

as having been found in a cave at the head of Cheddar Pass, in

Somersetshire. For it must never be forgotten that the occupation of

caves by man is not confined to any definite period; and that even in

the case of the discovery of objects of human workmanship in direct

association with the remains of the Pleistocene extinct mammals, their

contemporaneity cannot be proved without careful observation of the

circumstances under which they occur, even if then. Another point may

also be here mentioned, namely, that where there is evidence of the

occupation of a cavern by man, and also by large carnivores, they can

hardly have been tenants in common, but the one must have preceded the

other, or possibly the occupation by each may have alternated more

than once. Bones[2398] that have been gnawed by animals have sometimes

the appearance of having been shaped by man. This is especially the

case when beavers or porcupines have gnawed the bones. In determining

the age of a cave-deposit the greatest circumspection is required,

and special evidence is necessary in each individual case. Without,

therefore, at present entering on any such questions, I proceed to

notice the principal explorations of British caves, which have as

yet been made, and the narratives of those who conducted them. In

doing this I |487| shall, of course, confine myself to those caverns

in which some traces of man or his works have been discovered in

connection with the earlier fauna, of which mention has already been

made.

First on the list of systematic explorers stands the name of the late

Dr. Buckland, subsequently Dean of Westminster, who, upwards of seventy

years ago, conducted excavations in most of the ossiferous caves of

Britain at that time known; and also made more than one expedition into

Germany, with a view of studying analogous caverns in that country.

His “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ,” published in 1823, and containing, in part,

matter already printed in the _Philosophical Transactions_ of the

previous year, presents an interesting account of his researches.

Unfortunately, however, he sought in the phenomena of the caves and the

old alluvia evidence of a universal deluge, and not any record of an

extended chapter in the world’s history; and, though at a later period

of his life he renounced these views, yet the effect of his regarding

all human relics as post-diluvial, was to give a bias to geological

opinion so strongly against the belief in their true association with

the remains of the extinct mammals, as to cause some careful inquirers

almost to doubt the correctness of their own observations.

Still, so far as the instances cited in the “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ” go,

his judgment appears to have been in the main correct. The only case

in which there can be much doubt is that of the so-called “red woman

of Paviland;” for, as Prof. Boyd Dawkins[2399] has pointed out, there

appears to have been in this, as in some other caves, a mixture of

remains belonging to two distinct periods. This is proved by the

presence of remains of sheep, underneath the bones of elephants and

other Pleistocene mammals, as well as by the disturbed state of the

cave-earth, so that the skeleton, though of very early date, may not

impossibly belong to the Neolithic Period. The discoveries in the

caves near Mentone may, however, eventually throw more light upon the

question.

In size the skeleton equalled that of the largest male in the Oxford

Museum,[2400] so that the name of “red woman” appears misplaced. The

most remarkable feature in the case is that with the skeleton were

found a number of nearly cylindrical rods and fragments of rings of

ivory, which appear to have been made from some of the elephant tusks

in the cave. If this were so, |488| the state of preservation of the

tusks at the time of their being manufactured must have been better

than is usual in caverns, though fossil ivory from Siberia is still

employed for making knife-handles and for other purposes; and an

elephant’s tusk, found in a clay deposit in the Carse of Falkirk,[2401]

was sold to an ivory-turner and cut up into pieces for the lathe before

it could be rescued. The late Dr. Falconer,[2402] suggested that the

ivory articles may have been imported, and have had no connection with

the older tusks. Be this as it may, the case is not one on which to

insist; and I therefore pass on at once to a consideration of those

caves in Britain in which the occurrence of stone instruments of human

manufacture, in close association with the relics of extinct animals,

and under such circumstances as prove a vast antiquity, are thoroughly

well authenticated.

KENT’S CAVERN, TORQUAY.

The notices of this well-known cave by various authors, prior to 1859,

have been carefully collected and published by the late Mr. Pengelly,

F.R.S.,[2403] but of these, it is needless to cite here more than

the accounts given by the Rev. J. MacEnery, F.G.S., Mr. R. A. C.

Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., and Mr. E. Vivian.

MacEnery, who for many years was chaplain at Tor Abbey, having had

his attention first directed to the cave by the discovery in it of

fossil bones, during the year 1824–5, by Mr. Northmore and the late

Sir W. C. Trevelyan, devoted himself in the most enthusiastic manner

to an examination of the contents of the cavern, and with the most

successful results. He prepared for the press an account of his “Cavern

Researches,” for which numerous plates were engraved, apparently by

the aid of Dr. Buckland, but he did not live to publish it, and it was

first printed in a somewhat abridged form by Mr. Vivian in the year

1859. The whole of what remained of his MS. has, however, since been

published _verbatim_, by Mr. Pengelly.[2404] He relates the discovery

in the upper deposits of numerous relics, such as flakes and nuclei of

flint, polished celts of syenite and greenstone, bone pins, and long

|489| comb-like instruments, all belonging to the Neolithic or Surface

Stone Period, and in some cases to a later date. But he also describes

three[2405] special kinds of flint or chert instruments, to which

he calls particular attention. 1st. Flakes pointed at one end. 2nd.

Oblong double-edged splinters truncated at each end, which he thinks

may “have been employed as knives or chisels for dividing and shaping

wood, and which exhibit the marks of wear on their edges;” and 3rd.

“Oval-shaped discs chipped round to an edge, from 2 to 3 1∕2 inches

across, and some of them diminished to a point, like wedges. This part

in these specimens was observed to be blunted, apparently from knocking

like a hammer against hard bodies, while the sides, which in such an

operation would not be used, still remained sharp.” The modification in

the substance of the flint of which these instruments are composed is

noticed, and it is stated that at their transverse fracture many are

porous and absorbent, adhering to the tongue, like fossil bones, and so

closely that they support their weight.

Though evidently in dread of recording facts not quite in accordance

with Dr. Buckland’s views, he states distinctly that the true

position[2406] of these implements was below the bottom of the

stalagmite; and it is not a little remarkable that among the nine

specimens selected for engraving by Mr. MacEnery, and given in his

Plate T, as knives, arrow-heads, and hatchets of flint and chert found

in Kent’s Hole, Torquay, three are of a distinctly palæolithic type,

and two presumably so, the others being mere flakes, but of a character

quite in accordance with their belonging to the same period as the

better-defined types.

He further observes that “none of the cavern blades appeared to have

been rubbed or polished, but exhibit the rough serrated edge of the

original fracture. This difference alone may not be sufficient to

authorize us in assigning to the cavern reliques a higher antiquity,

but the absence of other Druidical remains at the depth where the

flints abound, is a negative confirmation.” That one who observed

so well should, out of deference to the prejudices of others, have

sometimes been doubtful of the evidence of his own eyes, and have been

driven to postpone until too late the publication of the records of his

observations, must ever be a cause of regret to all lovers of science

and of truth.

The next explorer of the cavern was Mr. R. A. C. Godwin-Austen,

F.R.S., who in 1840 communicated a paper on the |490| “Bone Caves of

Devonshire”[2407] to the Geological Society, and subsequently another

memoir on the “Geology of the South-east of Devonshire,” in which

the former was incorporated. He stated that “works of art, such as

arrow-heads and knives of flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and

throughout the entire thickness of the clay; and no distinction founded

on condition, distribution, or relative position can be observed

whereby the human can be separated from the other reliquiæ,” among

which he mentions teeth and bones of elephant, rhinoceros, ox, deer,

horse, bear, hyæna, and of a feline animal of large size.

In 1846 a committee was appointed by the Torquay Natural History

Society, to explore a small portion of the cavern, and a paper

detailing the results of the investigation was communicated by Mr. E.

Vivian to the British Association and to the Geological Society, in

which he stated that the important point established was that relics

of human art are found beneath the floor of stalagmite, even where its

thickness is about three feet. The abstract of this paper, as published

in the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_,[2408] seems to

show how little such a statement was in accordance with the geological

opinion of the day. It runs as follows:—“_On_ KENT’S CAVERN, _near_

TORQUAY, _by_ EDWARD VIVIAN, ESQ. In this paper an account was given

of some recent researches in that cavern by a committee of the Torquay

Natural History Society, during which the bones of various extinct

species of animals were found in several situations.”

In 1856, Mr. Vivian again called the attention of the British

Association to this cavern, and, in 1859, he published the greater part

of Mr. MacEnery’s MS., of which mention has already been made. The

ossiferous cave at Brixham had been discovered in the previous year, in

which also the collection of implements discovered in the river-drift

of the Valley of the Somme, formed by M. Boucher de Perthes, had been

visited by the late Dr. Falconer—a visit which resulted in that of the

late Sir Joseph Prestwich and myself in 1859, and in public interest

being excited in these remarkable discoveries, the area of which was

soon extended to numerous other valleys, both in France and Britain.

Encouraged by the success which had attended the exploration of the

old alluvia, the British Association, in 1864, appointed a committee

consisting of Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Professor |491|

Phillips, Mr. Vivian, Mr. Pengelly, and myself, to make a systematic

exploration of Kent’s Cavern, which was placed at our disposal by

Sir Lawrence Palk, the proprietor. From that time, until 1880, the

exploration was steadily carried on under the immediate and constant

superintendence of Mr. Pengelly and Mr. Vivian; and the names of

Professor Busk, Professor Boyd Dawkins, and Mr. W. A. Sanford, F.G.S.,

were added to the list of the committee. Mr. Pengelly, who acted as

reporter to the committee, has in successive years rendered sixteen

accounts to the Association[2409] of the progress of the researches,

which have been printed in their yearly Reports from 1865 to 1880.

Mr. Pengelly has also communicated a long series of papers upon the

exploration of the Cave[2410] to the Devonshire Association. I have

been allowed, for the purposes of this volume, to figure a certain

number of the instruments discovered in Kent’s Cavern, and for the

details I give concerning them, I am indebted partly to the annual

reports already mentioned, and partly to the kindness of the late Mr.

Pengelly.

The cave is about a mile east of Torquay harbour, and is of a sinuous

character, running deeply into a hill of Devonian Limestone, about half

a mile distant from the sea. In places, it expands into large chambers,

to which various distinctive names have been given.

It is needless for me to enter into any particulars as to the method

employed in conducting the explorations, by which the position of each

object discovered was accurately determined. I may, however, shortly

describe the series of deposits met with in the spacious chamber near

the entrance to the cave, which has been the principal scene of the

discoveries, and which corresponds in its main features with the other

parts of the cave. The deposits are as follows, in descending order:—

1. Large blocks of limestone which have fallen from the roof, sometimes

cemented together by stalagmite.

2. A layer of black, muddy mould, 3 inches to 12 inches in thickness.

3. Stalagmite 1 foot to 3 feet thick, almost continuous, and in places

containing large fragments of limestone.

4. Red cave-earth, varying in thickness, and containing about |492|

50 per cent. of angular fragments of limestone, with numerous bones of

extinct animals, and implements fashioned by the hand of man. Above

this and below the stalagmite, in one part of the cave there is a

black band from 2 inches to 6 inches thick, formed of soil like No. 2,

containing charcoal, numerous flint instruments, and bones and teeth of

animals.

5. At the base of the cave-earth is another floor of stalagmite in

places 10 or 12 feet in thickness.

6. Below this again a breccia of sub-angular and rounded pieces

of dark-red grit, a few quartz pebbles, and angular fragments of

limestone, embedded in a sandy paste. This also contained implements,

and in places had been broken up and become lodged in the cave-earth.

Above the upper stalagmite, principally in the black mould, have been

found a number of relics belonging to different periods, such as

socketed celts, and a socketed knife of bronze, some small fragments

of roughly-smelted copper, about four hundred flint flakes, cores, and

chips, a polishing stone, a ring of stone already described, numerous

spindle-whorls, bone instruments terminating in comb-like ends,

probably used for weaving, pottery, marine shells, numerous mammalian

bones of existing species, and some human bones, on which it has been

thought there are traces indicative of cannibalism. Some of the pottery

is distinctly Roman in character, but many of the objects belong, no

doubt, to pre-Roman times.

It is, however, with the implements found in the beds below, which had

already, at least two thousand years ago, been sealed up beneath the

thick coating of stalagmite, formed by a deposition of film upon film

of calcareous matter once held in solution, that I have here to do.

In some places, it is true that owing to previous excavations, and to

the presence of burrowing animals, the remains from above and below the

stalagmite have become intermingled; but I shall not cite any objects,

about the original position of which there is any doubt.

The principal forms are these: flat ovoid implements with an edge all

round; pointed kite-shaped or triangular implements; flakes of flint

of various sizes and wrought into different shapes, including the

so-called scrapers; the cores from which flakes have been struck, and

stones which have been used as hammers or pounders. Besides these, a

few pins, harpoons, and needles of bone have been discovered. |493|

[Illustration: Fig. 386.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,163) 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 387.—Kent’s Cavern. (286) 1∕2]

* * * * *

Prominent among the instruments of stone, both as exhibiting a great

amount of skill and design in fashioning them, and as being distinct in

character from the forms usually found on the surface, are the ovoid

discs such as had already attracted the attention of Mr. MacEnery. Of

these, specimens are engraved on the scale of one-half linear measure

in Figs. 386 and 387. The first (No. 1,163 in |494| Mr. Pengelly’s

list) is of grey cherty flint, carefully chipped on both faces, one of

which is rather more convex than the other. It is wrought to a slightly

undulating edge all round, except at one spot on the side, where blows

seem to have been given in vain in attempting to remove a flake. The

traces upon the edge, of wear or use, are but slight. It was found in

January, 1866, in the red cave-earth, four feet below the stalagmite,

which was about a foot thick, and continuous for a considerable

distance in every direction. The smaller implement (No. 286) Fig. 387,

is of much the same general form, but more sub-triangular in outline.

It is brought to an edge all round, but this is not in one plane, and

on one of the sides shows a sort of ogival curve. The flint has become

nearly white, and has a lustrous surface. A portion of the edge along

one of the sides has been sharpened by removing minute chips from one

face. It was found in June, 1865, between 3 and 4 feet deep in the

cave-earth in the great chamber.

[Illustration: Fig. 388.—Kent’s Cavern. (4,155) 1∕2]

But in addition to these ovoid instruments which have been chipped to

a more or less acute edge all round, a thick pointed instrument (No.

4,155) of sub-triangular outline, represented as Fig. 388, has been met

with, lying on the surface of the cave-earth in the “Sally-port.” It is

much altered in structure, but seems to have been formed from a cherty

nodule “apparently selected from the supracretaceous gravel so abundant

between Torquay and Newton.” The butt-end still exhibits the original

surface of the nodule, the rounded form of which renders it well

adapted for being held in the hand. |495| The point has unfortunately

been damaged, so that it is impossible to say whether it exhibited any

signs of use. One face of the implement is more convex than the other,

and has been chipped in such a manner as to leave a sort of central

ridge. This implement may have been derived from the breccia.

During the progress of the explorations[2411] subsequent to the

appearance of the former edition of this book, numerous other

implements of flint and chert were discovered, closely resembling in

form the implements from the river-gravels, and apparently of the age

of St. Acheul or Chelles. Mr. Pengelly[2412] has pointed out that these

belong to the breccia at the base of the cave-deposits, rather than to

the cave-earth above, in which thinner and more delicately-worked forms

have been found. He considers that there was a considerable interval of

time between the two deposits, and that there was a difference between

the fauna of the one and of the other. I have an implement almost the

exact counterpart of Fig. 388 from the Thetford gravels.

[Illustration: Fig. 388A.—Kent’s Cavern. (6,022) 3∕4]

Another implement (No. 6022) found on Nov. 27th, 1872, at a depth

of 16 inches in the undisturbed breccia, is by the kindness of the

Plymouth Institution, shown in Fig. 388A. Its resemblance to Fig. 414

from Biddenham, near Bedford, is striking. The illustration is on the

scale of three-fourths linear measure, instead of on the usual scale of

one-half. From fifteen to twenty implements were found in the breccia

and about seventy worked flints of various forms in the cave-earth.

Several implements, varying in size and slightly in form, but of the

same general character as the first two described, have also been

discovered in the cave. Some of these present an appearance of having

been used for scraping a hard substance, a part of the edge towards

the narrower end being worn away, leaving a sort of shoulder near the

extremity. The wear on the two sides is from the opposite faces, as if

the instrument had been turned over in the hand and used in the same

direction, whichever edge was employed. MacEnery, in his Plate T, has

engraved three instruments of this class, as Nos. 11, 12, and 13, and

has remarked on the pointed ends being blunted, |496| “apparently from

knocking like a hammer against hard bodies.” The blunting in those

which I have seen, does not, however, appear to me to be the result

of hammering, but rather of minute splinters breaking off during some

scraping process.

Implements much resembling in form these from Kent’s Cavern have been

found in the Cave of Le Moustier, Dordogne; but these latter are for

the most part thicker in proportion to their size, especially towards

the base, which is usually rather truncated, instead of being brought

to an edge. It is possible that they may have been mounted in some sort

of handle for use, but on the whole it appears more probable that they

were used unmounted in the hand, as a sort of knives or scraping tools.

A smaller form (No. 1,515) of pointed instrument from the cave-earth,

is shown in Fig. 389. Both its faces are equally convex, and are

chipped over their whole surface in the same manner as those of larger

sizes. In shape, it seems adapted to have formed the point of a lance,

but the edges and base are in many parts worn away, as if it had been a

sort of scraping tool. It much resembles some of the instruments found

in the Wookey Hyæna Den, by Prof. Boyd Dawkins.

[Illustration: Fig. 389.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,515) 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 390.—Kent’s Cavern. (3,922) 1∕2]

Among the wrought flakes which next demand our attention, the most

striking are some finely-pointed lanceolate blades of which one (No.

3,922) is represented in Fig. 390. It has a somewhat rounded point at

each end, and has been made from a long flake, the outer face of which

has been fashioned by secondary chipping. A part of the inner face at

one end has also been re-worked. The edges seem to be slightly worn

away, and show, along the greater part of their extent, the minute

chipping probably produced by scraping some |497| hard material. The

flint is white and porcellanous on the surface, and has become so light

and soft in structure, that it can readily be cut with a knife. It was

found in the south-west chamber of the cavern, beneath stalagmite not

quite a foot thick, but touching the ceiling of the chamber, or nearly

so, in company with teeth of hyæna, bear, and fox, and a small quartz

crystal.

* * * * *

With regard to this alteration in the colour and structure of the

flint, it may be well here to make a few remarks. At first sight,

it seems difficult to believe that in a material so hard, and under

ordinary circumstances so extremely durable, as flint, so complete

a change in colour and texture should have taken place, during any

lapse of time, however great. We find, however, that under certain

circumstances, even Neolithic implements, which still retain their

original black or dark colour in the interior, have on their exterior

become completely whitened, and in some cases softened so much that

they can be scratched with a knife. The cause, as was first pointed out

to me by the late M. Meillet,[2413] of Poitiers, appears to be inherent

in the nature of most flints, the silica in which is of two kinds; the

one crystallized silica or quartz, with a specific gravity of 2·6, and

insoluble in water, the other colloid or glassy silica, known as opal,

with a specific gravity of 2·2, which is much more transparent, horny,

and soluble; though in their other properties both are chemically the

same. It appears, then, that in these whitened flints, the soluble

portion has been removed by the passage of infiltrating water through

the body of the flint, while the insoluble portion has been left

in a finely-divided state, consisting of particles susceptible of

disaggregation by moderate force, and is consequently white. This

alteration in structure is not confined to artificially-wrought flints,

but may take place even in flint pebbles, under certain circumstances,

in pervious soils; for I have found Lower Tertiary pebbles in the

Woolwich and Reading beds, and also in the resulting conglomerates,

which have become sufficiently disintegrated to be cut with a steel

knife. When it is considered that these pebbles were originally the

hardest part of chalk flints, or at all events those parts which were

best able to withstand the rolling and wearing action of the Tertiary

sea, the amount of alteration they have since undergone, by the slow

dissolution of a portion of their |498| substance, is very striking.

The decomposed flint pebbles in the cliff at Southbourne-on-Sea[2414]

are well known, and belong to a still more recent geological period.

There is some difficulty in ascertaining the exact loss of weight

incurred during the process of alteration: but I find that a flake

of this porous white flint, which, when dry, weighed one hundred and

twenty-nine grains, gained, by immersion for half an hour in water,

thirteen grains, so that, taking the specific gravity of flint at

about 2·6, and assuming that the flake was originally perfectly

non-absorbent, the loss would appear to have been about one-fifth of

the original weight.

But to return from this digression to the subject of the instruments,

of which several belonging to the same class as Fig. 390 have been

found in Kent’s Cavern. Some of them are pointed at only one extremity,

and that usually the point of the original flake, the bulb-end being

left more or less obtuse.

* * * * *

A remarkably elegant instrument of this class (No. 3,869) is shown in

Fig. 391. It has been made from a ridged or carinated flake, though

having three facets at the butt-end, and a little secondary working

on one side; and at the butt this external face has been left in its

original condition. The inner face of the flake, however, which is

shown in the figure, has been almost entirely removed by secondary

working, extending from the edges to the middle of the blade, while the

edges have again been re-touched, so as to make them even and sharp.

At the butt-end it is chisel-like in form. It was found, on July 4th,

1868, at a depth of 2 feet in the cave-earth, beneath stalagmite 2 feet

8 inches thick. Several other instruments of the same kind have been

found in the cavern. Some of them are even longer than those figured.

[Illustration: Fig. 391.—Kent’s Cavern. (3,869) 1∕2]

These instruments so closely resemble in character the long flakes of

obsidian and other silicious stones in use, as javelin heads, among

the Admiralty Islanders and other savage tribes until the present day,

that one is tempted to assign to them a similar purpose.[2415] It is

possible that they may have been merely knives, or they may have served

for both purposes, like the arrow-heads of the inhabitants of Tierra

del Fuego. These English specimens may be compared with some of the

lance-heads from the cave of Laugerie Haute, belonging to the Age of

Solutré, but they are not quite so dexterously chipped. |499|

Another form of implement which is shown in Fig. 392 (No. 117) was

found in 1865, in the second foot in depth, in the cave-earth of the

great chamber. It appears best adapted for being held in the hand and

used as a scraping tool, possibly in the preparation of skins for

clothing; and has been formed from a triangular flake, the ridge of

which is slightly curved, and runs obliquely along the instrument. It

has been trimmed by blows administered on the flat face, into a pointed

oval form with a bevelled edge all round, and this edge towards the

middle of one side of the blade is rounded and worn away by use. It is

well adapted for being held in the hand as a side-scraper, and it is

precisely that part of the edge which would be most exposed to wear, if

thus held, that is actually worn. This instrument is not unlike some of

the boat-shaped implements of the Surface Period, but is broader and

thinner in its proportions. Almost identical forms have occurred in the

Brixham Cave, and in that of Aurignac, explored by M. Lartet. Some of

the trimmed flakes from the cave of Le Moustier are of much the same

character, but the edges are perhaps sharper, and the butt-end of the

flake is left of a more rounded form. I have an instrument of much the

same general character, from the gravel of the valley of the Lark, at

Icklingham, Suffolk, but it is not so neatly or symmetrically finished,

and the inner face of the flake is somewhat convex, instead of being

concave.

[Illustration: Fig. 392.—Kent’s Cavern. (117) 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 393.—Kent’s Cavern. (3,918) 1∕2]

Another instrument, of nearly the same nature, is shown in Fig. 393

(No. 3,918); one of its sides is, however, much straighter than the

other. The edge of this also is somewhat abraded by use. It is formed

of flint, which has become white, porcellanous, and light. It was found

in the south-west chamber, as was also that shown in Fig. 394 (No.

1∕3912). This is a broad flat flake, the side edges of which appear

to have been trimmed by secondary chipping, and subsequently to have

been somewhat worn away by use, whether as a saw or a |500| scraping

tool it is difficult to say. The material is black flint, now weathered

grey, and is much heavier than the white flint, and apparently more

cherty. Other examples of semilunar implements were also found.

Some of the large flakes found in the cavern appear to have been

utilized with very little secondary trimming. That shown in Fig. 395

(No. 56) is of cherty flint, with a sharp edge along one side, while

the other side is blunt for half its length from the butt-end, where

it is half an inch thick and nearly square with the face, something

like the back of the blade of a knife. The edge on the left side of

the figure has been trimmed by secondary chipping, mainly on the outer

face of the flake, except for about an inch near the butt, where the

trimming has been on the inner face, the evident object having been

to bring the edge into one plane. The tool is well adapted for being

held in the hand, with the thick side resting against the forefinger,

leaving the straight edge free for cutting or sawing along its entire

length. Part of the right edge near the point seems to have been

used for scraping some hard substance, such as bone. It was found in

1865, between one and two feet deep in the cave-earth in the entrance

chamber. There is considerable analogy between these large boldly

chipped flakes trimmed at the edge, and some of those found in the

River-drifts and in the cave of Le Moustier.

[Illustration: Fig. 394.—Kent’s Cavern. (1∕3912) 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 395.—Kent’s Cavern. (56) 1∕2]

A few of the round-ended instruments, to which the name of scraper has

been given, were also found in the cave-earth. One of these (No. 2,183)

is shown, full size, in Fig. 396. It has been formed from an external

flake, struck off a flint from the chalk, the end and one of the sides

of which have been re-chipped to a bevelled edge. This, however, at the

side becomes nearly at right angles to the face. The butt-end has been

also chipped almost to a point. The edge shows |501| symptoms of wear

in several places. It was found in the fourth foot in depth, in the

cave-earth; but the ground at the spot had been previously broken, so

that its position cannot be regarded as certain.

Another instrument of the same class (No. 1,822) is shown, full size,

in Fig. 397. It has been formed from a ridged flake, and exhibits marks

of having been in use as a scraping tool, not only at one end but at

the sides. The inner face is beautifully smooth and flat. Some of these

scraper-like tools are more square at the end, and chipped and worn

along both sides, having evidently seen much service. So far as form

is concerned, there is little or nothing to distinguish them from the

analogous instruments of the Neolithic Period. Such scrapers also occur

in most of the caves which have furnished implements in France and

Belgium, and usually in much greater proportional abundance than has

been the case in Kent’s Cavern. In some caves, however, as for instance

in that of Le Moustier, instruments of this character are extremely

scarce. They appear to me to have served for other purposes besides

that of dressing skins—one of the uses to which such instruments are

applied by the Eskimos of the present day. There is great probability

of some of them having been used for striking fire by means of pyrites,

as the French and Belgian caves have yielded specimens of that mineral.

In the Trou de Chaleux[2416] a block of pyrites was found deeply scored

at one end, as if by constant scraping blows with flint; and another

block from Les Eyzies, with the end worn, is in the Christy Collection.

[Illustration: Fig. 396.—Kent’s Cavern. (2,183) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 397.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,822) 1∕1]

Several examples of another form of tool, manufactured from simple

triangular or polygonal flakes, have occurred in Kent’s Cavern. In

|502| these, one end of the flake has been worked to an oblique

straight scraping edge, forming an obtuse angle with one side of the

flake, and an acute angle with the other; the point being sometimes on

the right, and sometimes on the left side of the flake. Specimens of

each variety, Nos. 1∕1963 and 2∕1963, which were found together, are

engraved as Figs. 398 and 399. The long side of the flake is usually

but little worn, but the short side and the oblique end are always

minutely chipped, and sometimes have the edge quite rounded by wear.

This is particularly the case in Fig. 398, of which the long side

also has been used for scraping. This flake is considerably curved

longitudinally, and its point has much the appearance of having been

used as a sort of drill. It seems probable that the obliquity of the

edge at the end of the tool is connected with the manner in which it

was held in the hand.

[Illustration: Fig. 398.—Kent’s Cavern. (1∕1963) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 399.—Kent’s Cavern. (2∕1963) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 400.—Kent’s Cavern. (2,253) 1∕1]

The perfectly sharp condition of one edge of the flake, while the other

is chipped away and worn, is probably due to its having been protected

by some sort of wooden handle. We have already seen how in the Swiss

Lake-dwellings flakes of flint were mounted; and though probably for

these small flakes, such highly-finished handles were not prepared, yet

the insertion of one edge of a flake of flint into a piece of split

stick involves no great trouble, while it would shield the fingers from

being cut, and would tend to strengthen the flint. In several of the

French caves, extremely slender flakes have been found, with one edge

quite worn away and the other untouched, a condition for which it is

difficult to account on any other hypothesis than that of their having

been inserted longitudinally into some sort of back or handle, probably

of wood.

At least two specimens of another form have occurred in which both

ends, instead of only one, have been slanted off. One of these (No.

2,253) is shown in Fig. 400. The other is of precisely the same size

and shape. In both, the two sloping ends and the short side are |503|

worn by use, while the long side is unscathed except by accidental

breakage. In the instrument not figured, the scraping edge, both at the

side and ends, has been on the flat face of the flake. In the other,

this has been the case at the ends only, while at the side the scraping

edge has been on one of the facets. I am not aware of this form of

instrument having as yet been elsewhere noticed, nor indeed, to my

knowledge, has observation been called to those like Fig. 399, found

in the French caves. One or two specimens, of much the same character

as Fig. 399, were, however, found at La Madelaine, and are in the

Christy Collection. These bevel-ended flakes also occur in Neolithic

times.[2417]

As might be expected, the bulk of the worked flints found in Kent’s

Cavern are flakes and spalls, more or less perfect, and a very large

proportion of them show, on some part of their edges, traces of use. It

seems needless to engrave any of these simple forms, as they present no

characteristics different from those of the flakes and splinters of any

other age. Many of them have been made from rolled pebbles, no doubt

derived from the adjacent beach. Some of the cores from which they have

been struck have occurred in the cave, of which one (No. 1,970) is

represented, on the scale of one-half, in Fig. 401.

[Illustration: Fig. 401.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,970) 1∕2]

Curiously enough, among the animal remains is a portion of a large

canine tooth of a bear, with the edges chipped away, so as much to

resemble a worked flake.

[Illustration: Fig. 402.—Kent’s Cavern. (597) 1∕2]

Of the stone implements not consisting of flint or chert, perhaps the

most remarkable is the hammer-stone (No. 597), shown on the scale of

one-half, in Fig. 402. It is formed from a pebble of coarse, hard, red

sandstone, the outer surface of which is still retained on the two

flatter faces of the stone; but all round, with the exception of a

small patch, the edge of the original pebble has been battered away by

hammering, until the whole has been brought into an almost cheese-like

form. It was found in 1865, between one and two feet deep in the red

cave-earth, over which lay an enormous block of limestone, but no

stalagmite. MacEnery mentions, among the objects which he discovered,

a ball of granite, which was probably of the same class as this. Many

such hammer-stones have been found in the French caves. I have one,

formed from a micaceous quartzose pebble, which I found in the cave

of La Madelaine, explored by Messrs. Lartet and Christy, which almost

matches this from Kent’s Cavern in size and shape. It seems possible

that their use was for pounding some substances, either animal or

vegetable, for food. It is, however, hardly probable that any cereals

were cultivated by those who handled them. They may have |504| been

used in breaking open the bones for the marrow, which seems, from the

fractured condition of all bones that contained it, to have been a

favourite food among the French cave-dwellers. Wexovius, quoted by

Scheffer,[2418] says: “The marrow of raindeer is of a delicious taste,

which they value in Lapland, just as we do oisters or some other

outlandish dainties.”

Another object which has to be mentioned is a sort of whetstone of

purplish-grey grit. It is a nearly square prism, 4 3∕4 inches long,

and with the sides rather less than 1 inch wide. It was found in a

recess beneath a projecting bed of limestone, _in situ_, but sealed in

beneath a thick mass of stalagmitic breccia. A fragment of another, of

finer grained greenish grit, has also been found beneath stalagmite, 26

inches thick. This latter, according to Sir Wollaston Franks, closely

resembles some stones found in the Bruniquel caves, both in form and

material.

It will naturally be inquired, for what purpose were these whetstones

required, and what is the meaning of all these marks of wear on the

edges of the flint tools, as if they had been used for scraping

some hard substance? Fortunately the answer is not far to seek. The

latter were used not only as weapons of the chase, and in cutting and

preparing food, but also in the manufacture of various implements of

bone, and possibly of ivory, such as harpoon-heads, pins, and even

needles, as well as other instruments of unknown use. The wearing away

of the edges of many of the flint-flakes is precisely of that character

which I find by experiment to result from scraping bone; while it seems

probable that the use of the whetstones was for putting the final

polish on the bone instruments, and sharpening their points, for either

of which purposes, mere scraping-tools like those of flint would be but

inefficient.

It is not, of course, to be expected, that these instruments and

weapons of bone should occur in anything approaching to the same

numbers as the simple instruments of flint. The latter were readily

made, and therefore of little value. They were also soon worn out and

thrown aside; but the former required considerable time and skill in

their preparation, and would not be discarded unless broken; and if

accidentally lost, would be worth the trouble of being sought for.

In some of the French caves, however, in which the deposits, unlike

those in Kent’s Cavern, are strictly of a refuse character, like the

shell-mounds of Denmark, a larger proportion of them has occurred than

here.

The principal objects of the kind, discovered below the stalagmite in

Kent’s Cavern, are portions of harpoon-heads, a pin, awl, and a needle,

which it will be well to describe, as they afford links of connection

between the relics of this and other caves.

The harpoon-heads are of two kinds, some being barbed on both sides,

others on one only. Of the former kind, but one example (No. 2,282)

has been found, which is shown in Fig. 403. It lay in the second foot

in depth, in the red cave-earth in the vestibule. Above this was the

black band 3 inches thick, containing flint-flakes and remains of

extinct mammals; and above this again, the stalagmite |505| floor 18

inches in thickness. It is as usual imperfect, but the 2 1∕4 inches

which remain, show the tapering-point and four barbs on either side,

which are opposite to each other and not alternate. It is precisely of

the same character as some of the harpoon-heads from the cave of La

Madelaine, which are usually formed of reindeer horn. The material in

this instance is I believe the same. The striated marks of the tool by

which it was scraped into form are still distinctly visible in places.

Such harpoon-heads have been regarded as characteristic of the latest

division in the sequence of this class of caverns, and have been found

in numerous localities on the Continent. A doubly-barbed harpoon-head

of bone, belonging to a much more recent period, was found in the

Victoria Cave,[2419] at Settle.

[Illustration: Fig. 403.—Kent’s Cavern. (2,282) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 404.—Kent’s Cavern. (2,206) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 405.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,970) 1∕1]

Of the other kind, which have the barbs along one side only of the

blade, two examples have been found. One of these (No. 2,206), though

in two pieces, is otherwise nearly perfect, and is shown in Fig. 404.

It also has its analogues among the harpoon-heads found in the cave of

La Madelaine and elsewhere, especially at Bruniquel. Its stem shows the

projection for retaining the loop of cord by which it was connected

with the shaft, though it was probably still susceptible of being

detached from immediate contact with it. In this respect, as indeed

in general character, these early weapons seem closely to resemble

those of the Eskimos of the present day. A good series of modern

and ancient instruments of this class is engraved in the “Reliquiæ

Aquitanicæ.”[2420] An article on the distribution of harpoons in the

caverns of the Pyrenees, from the pen of M. Ed. Piette,[2421] may

be consulted with advantage. The other instrument of this kind (No.

1,970), shown in Fig. 405, is the terminal portion of a similar point,

but with the barbs all broken off at the base. It is about 3 3∕4 inches

long, and was found in the black band. |506|

The pin (No. 1,929), already mentioned, is shown in Fig. 406, and

was found in the fourth foot in depth, in the cave-earth below the

stalagmite in the vestibule, which there attained a thickness of 20

inches. It lay with an unworn molar of _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_. In the

black band above the cave-earth, but below the stalagmite, were remains

of the hyæna and other cave-mammals. The pin is 3 1∕4 inches long,

nearly circular in section, expanding into a head much like that of a

common screw, and tapering off to a sharp point. It bears a high polish

as if from constant use, and was probably employed as a fastener of the

dress, itself most likely made of skin.

[Illustration: Fig. 406.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,929) 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 407.—Kent’s Cavern. (1,835) 1∕1]

A kind of awl made of bone (No. 1,835), about 3 3∕4 inches long, and

sharply pointed at one end, was also found beneath stalagmite 16 inches

thick. It is shown full size in Fig. 407. The marks of the tool by

which it was scraped into form may be distinctly seen upon it.

A lance-shaped bone tool (No. 3,428) 2·7 inches long, flat on one face

and convex on the other, was also found in the cave-earth.

[Illustration: Fig. 408.—Kent’s Cavern.]

But perhaps the most interesting of all the objects discovered in the

cavern, is the small bone needle found in 1866 in the black band below

the stalagmite, but not recognized until 1868, in consequence of its

having been enveloped in a stalagmitic covering, which then fell off,

and displayed the true character of the object it contained. The needle

has unfortunately lost its point, but what remains is nearly 7∕8 of an

inch long, as will be seen from Fig. 408. It tapers slightly, and is

somewhat elliptical in section, the greatest diameter at the larger end

being barely 8∕100 of an inch, and at the smaller end 3∕100. It has a

neatly-drilled circular eye capable of receiving a thread about 3∕80 of

an inch in diameter, or about the thickness of fine twine. The surface

of the shaft shows numerous fine longitudinal _striæ_, as if it had

been scraped into shape.

Such needles have been found in considerable numbers in the caves of

the age of La Madelaine, such as Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, Bruniquel,

and the lower cave of Massat, always associated with |507| harpoons of

the barbed type. They vary in length from 3 1∕4 inches to 1 inch, and

some have been found which show that, after they had been accidentally

broken through the eye, a fresh eye was drilled. That this could

readily be effected by means of a pointed flint was proved, as before

observed, by the late Mons. E. Lartet, who both made bone needles and

bored eyes in them by means of flint tools alone. An excellent and

exhaustive essay on the employment of sewing-needles in ancient times,

more especially in connection with those from the French caves, has

been communicated by M. E. Lartet to the “Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ,”[2422]

to which the reader is referred for further particulars. As with the

Lapps, it seems probable that the thread in use with these needles

was made from reindeer sinews; that animal, at all events in the

Dordogne, having formed a principal article of food at the period of

the occupation of the caves.

* * * * *

Such are the principal works of human art which have been discovered

in this most interesting cavern, in the researches conducted under the

superintendence of the late Mr. Pengelly, and mainly through grants

made by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. A

series of them is exhibited in the British Museum.

Before attempting to account for their presence in the cave-deposits,

or to ascertain what that betokens, it will be well to take a cursory

glance at the animal remains with which they were found associated. For

this purpose I take the list prepared by Prof. Boyd Dawkins and Mr. W.

A. Sanford, and published in the Report of the British Association for

1869. It embodies, however, the result of an examination of less than

one-tenth part of the whole number of specimens obtained, though that

tenth exceeded 4,000 in number. The following list comprises nearly all

the mammals, bones of which undoubtedly belong to the cave-earth, and

omits all species the determination of which is at all uncertain, as

well as birds and fishes:—

/X

_Lepus timidus_ (var. _diluvianus_?), Hare . . . Rare.

_Lagomys pusillus_, Tail-less hare . . . Very rare.

_Felis leo_, var. _spelæa_, Cave-Lion  . . . Abundant.

_Hyæna crocuta_, var. _spelæa_,

Cave-Hyæna . . . Very abundant.

_Gulo luscus_, Glutton  . . . Very rare.

_Ursus spelæus_, Cave-Bear  . . . Abundant.

_Ursus priscus_ = _ferox_, Grizzly Bear  . . . Abundant.

_Ursus arctos_, Brown Bear  . . . Scarce.

_Canis lupus_, Wolf  . . . Rare.

_Canis vulpes_, var. _spelæus_,

large Fox   . . . Rare.

_Elephas primigenius_, Mammoth  . . . Not very common.

_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, Woolly Rhinoceros  . . . Abundant.

_Equus caballus_, Horse . . . Very abundant. |508|

_Bos primigenius_, Urus  . . . Scarce.

_Bison priscus_, Bison  . . . Abundant.

_Cervus megaceros_, Irish Elk  . . . Not uncommon.

_Cervus elaphus_ (_Strongyloceros

spelæus_, Owen), Stag  . . . Abundant.

_Cervus tarandus_, Reindeer  . . . Abundant.

_Arvicola amphibius_, Water-vole  . . . Rare.

_A. agrestis_, Field-vole  . . . Rare.

_A. pratensis_, Bank-vole  . . . Very rare.

_Castor fiber_, Beaver  . . . Scarce.

X/

In the breccia the hyæna appears to be absent, while remains of bear

occur in great abundance.

The list published by Prof. Boyd Dawkins in his “Cave-hunting”[2423]

adds a few mammals of minor importance, but also the _Machairodus

latidens_, of which an incisor was found in the cave-earth in

1872.[2424] Of this “sabre-toothed tiger” five canine teeth and one

if not two incisors were found in the cavern by MacEnery, but doubts

had been thrown upon his accuracy. The discovery of 1872 justified the

Committee in reporting that _Machairodus latidens_ and Man had been

contemporaries in Britain.

In the black mould above the stalagmite, where polished stone and

bronze instruments have occurred, a different fauna is present. We

there meet with the dog, short-horn ox (_Bos longifrons_), roe-deer,

sheep, goat, pig, and rabbit, of which no remains are found in the

cave-earth. In that deposit, on the contrary, by far the greater number

of the remains are of mammals now either entirely extinct, or no longer

to be found in Britain.

The mineral condition of the bones in the cave-earth, it is but right

to say, varies considerably; so much so, as to lead to the conclusion

that some of the bones, especially of bear, are derived from an

earlier deposit of the same character. These more ancient remains are,

according to Prof. Boyd Dawkins, much more crystalline, much heavier,

and of a darker colour than the ordinary teeth and bones. Still,

nearly the whole of the bones in the cave-earth beneath the stalagmite

appear beyond doubt to belong to one and the same period, though that

period may have been of long duration, and the breccia which contained

implements of River-drift types is of still earlier date. These bones

have for the most part been broken into fragments, sometimes split

longitudinally, and vast numbers of them have been gnawed, apparently

by hyænas. In what manner are we to account for the presence of the

works of man among them, and are they of the same age as the animal

remains with which they are associated? |509|

In considering this question, I do not take into account those portions

of the cave in which there are variations from what may be regarded as

the typical section, these being mainly due to accidental and local

causes, such as the breaking up of beds of stalagmite of earlier date

than those above the cave-earth, but restrict myself to the main

features of the case.

There can be little doubt that, as has been pointed out by Mr.

Pengelly, the accumulation of the cave-earth containing these remains

took place slowly and gradually; large blocks of limestone and films

of stalagmite encrusting stones and bones, or cementing them into a

firm concrete, running at all levels and in all parts of the principal

chamber. So that, without entering into any discussion as to the manner

in which the red earth and pebbles of the deposit were introduced into

the cavern, which would be here somewhat out of place, we may safely

assume that the bones and teeth, whatever may have been their antiquity

at the time of their introduction into the cave-earth, were deposited

in the positions in which they are now found, at the same time as the

implements with which they are associated. We can, however, readily

conceive circumstances under which old deposits, containing relics of

extinct animals, might be disturbed from their position in a cave,

and re-deposited with objects of human workmanship belonging to a far

more recent period. In fact, among the bones themselves there are some

which, as has already been pointed out, have belonged to an earlier

deposit than that in which they are now found. Let us, therefore,

examine into the possibility of these instruments of flint and bone

belonging to a different period from that of the animals with the

remains of which they now occur. One thing, of course, is evident,

that whether there has been a mixture in the cave-earth of objects

belonging to various ages or no, such a mixture could only have taken

place before the thick coating of stalagmite which now overlies them

had even begun to accumulate. The amount of time represented by such a

coating, it is, of course, impossible to calculate; but, even under the

most favourable circumstances, it must have been the work of hundreds,

or more probably thousands of years; and yet its deposit had been

completed before the introduction of the overlying black mould, which

has proved to contain objects to which an antiquity of at least two

thousand years may safely be assigned.

But what do the presence and condition of these instruments |510|

denote? The flint flakes occur in great numbers, and have mostly

been used; the blocks from which they were struck are present; there

are traces of fire on some of the bones; there are hammer-stones,

whetstones, weapons of the chase, and the needle of the housewife;

all prove that during the accumulation of the cave-earth, the cavern

was, at all events from time to time, the habitation of man. How far

this human occupancy may have alternated with that of predaceous

animals may be a matter of question; but of man’s sojourn in Kent’s

Cavern for a lengthened period in all, before the deposition of the

upper stalagmite, there can be no doubt. But in all cases of human

occupancy of caves we find, and it could not well be otherwise, the

refuse of man’s food, in the shape of the bones of the animals whose

flesh he consumed, or the shells of the edible molluscs with which

his meals were varied. We have seen that in the black mould above the

stalagmite, the implements of bronze and stone are associated with a

fauna essentially the same as that of the present day. But the bulk of

the mammals which are found above the stalagmite do not occur below it;

and assuming, as we must do, that the earlier occupants of the cave

subsisted on animal food, and were unable to eat the whole of the bones

as well as the flesh, some portion of the bones below the stalagmite

must be the refuse from their meals. Without insisting on the perfect

contemporaneity of all the animal remains found together in the

cave-earth, we may therefore safely affirm that we have here relics of

man associated with a fauna from which the ordinary forms of ox, sheep,

goat, pig, and dog are entirely absent, and of which the majority of

forms are now either totally or locally extinct.

That the fauna represented in the cave-earth is, however, to be

regarded as all belonging to one and the same period—unless possibly

the _Machairodus_ is to be excepted—is shown, as will subsequently

be seen, by the occurrence of the remains of, at all events, all the

larger mammals, associated together in the old River-drifts.

Comparing this result with that obtained from an examination of the

French caves, the rock-shelters in which almost the whole accumulation

is a kind of refuse heap, we find it fully confirmed, so far as the

animals best adapted for human food are concerned. The rarity of the

remains of the other animals in these rock-shelters is probably to

be accounted for by the fact that the sole occupants were human; and

that either their tenancy was |511| continuous, or that during their

absence these rock-shelters were not the haunts of predaceous animals,

for which indeed they are far less well adapted than the sinuous caves.

In attempting to correlate the works of man from Kent’s Cavern with

those from the French caves, we find in the first place that implements

of the types usually characteristic of the River-gravels have been

found in about a dozen French caves, of which a list has been given

by M. E. D’Acy,[2425] and, secondly, that the harpoons and needle

belong to the age of La Madelaine, though bones engraved with pictorial

designs—which are also characteristic of that period—are wanting. Some

of the flint implements, however, approximate more closely in character

with those of the age of Le Moustier; while the age of Solutré is not

so decidedly represented by any of its peculiar forms. If any value

attaches to these analogies, there would seem to be reason, on these

grounds also, for supposing that the infilling of the cave with the

red earth, to say nothing of the breccia at a lower level, was the

work of an immensely long lapse of time. The black band, which in part

of the cave lay beneath the stalagmite, and contained numerous pieces

of charcoal, seems to indicate some more continuous occupancy of the

cave by man, than at the time when the red earth was accumulating.

Then comes the stalagmite, in which but few remains whether human or

otherwise have been found, and these for the most part may have fallen

in from higher levels. It seems to indicate a vast period of time,

during which the cavern was entirely unfrequented by man or beast, and

during which the fauna of the country was undergoing those changes—by

the extinction or migration of some forms of mammalian life, and the

incoming of others—which is so strongly marked by the difference in

the contents of the beds above and below the stalagmite. As concerns

this long chapter in the history of human existence the records of the

cavern are a blank.

It is, moreover, to be observed that though in Kent’s Cavern we have

evidence of its occupation by Man more or less continuously from the

Acheuléen down to the Magdalénien Age, a space of time embracing nearly

all the phases of the Palæolithic Period, there is no sign of any

transition to the Neolithic Period, the remains of which first make

their appearance after the deposit of the stalagmite. |512|

BRIXHAM CAVE, TORQUAY.

The ossiferous cave of Brixham, near Torquay, was discovered in the

year 1858, and was almost immediately brought under the notice of the

Geological and Royal Societies by the late Dr. Hugh Falconer.[2426]

The latter society, acting on the recommendation of the council of the

former, made a grant towards the exploration of the cave in the manner

suggested by the late Mr. Pengelly, who was also assisted with money by

the Baroness Burdett Coutts, Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, and the late Mr.

R. Arthington of Leeds. With Dr. Falconer was associated a committee of

distinguished geologists, including Mr. Pengelly, under whose immediate

superintendence the works were carried on. Owing to various delays,

the final report of this committee, drawn up by the late Sir Joseph

Prestwich, was not presented to the Royal Society until 1872, though

some accounts of the progress of the explorations[2427] had from time

to time been made public.

The Report will be found in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for

1873[2428] and comprises a memorandum of my own on the objects of human

industry discovered in the cave.

Accounts of the cave have also been given by Mr. Pengelly[2429] and

Prof. Boyd Dawkins.[2430]

The cave itself is in Devonian Limestone, and consists of three

principal galleries, in plan not unlike the letter Z, with various

diverging tunnel-shaped passages, and a chamber at the right-hand lower

corner of the Z, the two entrances being at the extreme points on

the opposite side. The gallery represented by the middle limb of the

letter, known as the Flint Knife Gallery, bears the most distinct marks

of having been hollowed out by the long-protracted action of running

water, and the deposit in it was nearly free from stalagmite. In the

others, which are known as the Reindeer and Pen Galleries, and which

have more the character of fissures, stalagmite abounded.

Where all the deposits of the cave were present,[2431] the following

was the section in descending order.

1. Irregular layer of stalagmite, 1 to 15 inches thick. |513|

2. Ochreous red cave-earth, with angular stones and some pebbles, 2 to

13 feet.

3. Gravel, with many rounded pebbles in it.

In and on the stalagmite, were found antlers of reindeer, and a humerus

of bear, and in the cave-earth, numerous mammalian remains. Among them,

in one place, were nearly all the bones of the left hind-leg of a bear,

still preserving their true anatomical position,[2432] though with one

of the bones of the fore-leg lying with them. In close proximity lay

one of the worked flints, of which several were found in this bed. A

few occurred in the gravel. The fauna appears to be nearly identical

with that of Kent’s Cavern, though the _Machairodus_ is absent. We

have, therefore, here another instance of the association of these

works of man with the remains of the extinct mammals, in a cave-deposit

beneath a thick layer of stalagmite, which, in this case, had been for

the most part deposited before the reindeer had quitted the south of

England, and while a large bear, probably _Ursus spelæus_, was still

living in Britain. An interesting feature in the case has been pointed

out by Mr. Pengelly,[2433] who, from the nature and origin of some of

the pebbles in the cave-earth, argues that to allow of their having

been brought into the cave by means of water—which in this instance,

for various reasons, seems to have been the transporting agent—the

configuration of the surface of the land in the neighbourhood must have

been very different from what it is at present; and that a valley, 75

feet in depth, which now runs in front of the cave, could not then have

existed, but must have been subsequently excavated.

The fragments of flint of various sizes discovered in the cave, and

showing in a greater or less degree traces of human workmanship upon

them, were upwards of thirty in number. Like those from Kent’s Cavern,

they have, for the most part, undergone much alteration in structure,

having become white, absorbent, and brittle to a greater or less depth

from their surface, which in some instances still retains a bright

porcellanous glaze. The flint appears to have been derived originally

from the chalk, though in some cases it had, before being utilized,

been rolled into pebbles on the beach.

* * * * *

The following are some of the most remarkable specimens:—

[Illustration: Fig. 409.—Brixham Cave. 1∕2]

A round-pointed lanceolate implement, shown on the scale of 1∕2 in.

Fig. 409. The point is symmetrically chipped, but the original |514|

surface of the flint has been left untouched over the greater part

of the butt-end, which is roughly cylindrical, and more truncated

than is usual with chalk flints, but is well adapted for being held

in the hand. This implement has had the pointed end broken off by an

irregularly diagonal fracture rather more than half way along it, and

the butt-end has subsequently split up lengthways with what may be

termed a “faulted” line of fracture; and about a quarter of it has

been lost. The fractures are evidently of very ancient date; but what

is most remarkable is that the butt-end was found in August, 1858, 3

feet deep in the cave-earth in the Flint Knife Gallery, and the point

was not found until nearly a month afterwards, a long distance away

in the Pen Gallery, at a depth of 3 feet 6 inches in the same bed. It

was not until some time afterwards that it was discovered that the

two fragments fitted each other, or that the true character of the

implement was seen. In general form it closely resembles one type of

the pointed instruments from the Valley-gravels. In fact, it is in all

essential points identical with them, and agrees in character with

many of the implements from the breccia of Kent’s Cavern—especially

with one (No. 7,328) which might have been made by the same hand—while

it differs materially in form from the flat ovoid implements from the

|515| cave-earth, such as Fig. 386, which, however, also find their

analogues in the River-Drift.

Another instrument, of an elongated-oval form, has been made from a

large flake, or splinter, of flint with an approximately flat inner

face, showing strongly the curved and waved lines of conchoidal

fracture. It has been shaped by a succession of blows given in such

a manner as not to injure the flat face, but to produce a more or

less bevelled scraping or cutting edge all round, some parts of which

present appearances of wear by use. It is shown in Fig. 410, and, as

will be seen, is of much the same character as the implement from

Kent’s Cavern, Fig. 392, in the description of which the analogy of

this type with that of some of the French cave-implements is pointed

out.

[Illustration: Fig. 410.—Brixham Cave. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 411.—Brixham Cave. 1∕2]

In Fig. 411 is represented an instrument found in the gravel in a

fissure in the West Chamber of the cave. It is a fragment of a large

broad flake, showing on its convex face a portion of the original crust

of the flint. It seems to have been at first of an approximately oval

form, but has lost one of its ends by a straight fracture. This end

appears to have been broken off in ancient times, after the rest of the

instrument had been chipped into shape. A portion of the other end is

also wanting, but the fracture in this case must have existed before

the completion of the implement, as several flakes have been removed

from its convex face, by blows administered on the fractured surface.

One side of the flake has been trimmed by chipping, at first boldly and

then more minutely, to a segmental bevelled edge, much resembling in

character that of some of the large “side-scrapers” from the cave of Le

Moustier[2434] in the Dordogne. Instruments of the same character occur

occasionally, though rarely, in the ancient River-deposits. There are

some traces of use on the edge of this specimen.

A remarkably symmetrical scraper was also thought to have come from

the Brixham Cave, and is shown full size in Fig. 412. I remarked in

publishing it that it closely resembled the scrapers found |516| on

the surface of the soil, and that it was exceptionally short for a

cave-specimen. A little time after the first edition of this book had

appeared, I discovered that this scraper had been found on the surface

near the top of Windmill Hill, and had been included with the other

specimens by mistake.[2435] It is undoubtedly neolithic.

[Illustration: Fig. 412.—Brixham Cave. 1∕1]

The other implements from the Brixham Cave consist for the most part

of flakes and splinters of flint of different sizes, and more or less

chipped. One of these, 2 3∕4 inches long, has been chipped or jagged

along one edge, apparently by use, while the broad round end is so

much worn away as to almost assume the appearance of a “scraper.” Most

of them bear decided marks, either on their sides or ends, of having

been in use as scraping tools. About half way along one of them is a

rounded notch, apparently produced by scraping some cylindrical object;

and in connection with this it may be mentioned that a portion of a

cylindrical pin, or rod, of ivory was found in the cave, being the only

object wrought from an animal substance. A cylindrical piece of ivory

about 3∕8 inch in diameter was found in the Gorge d’Enfer cavern, and

is in the Christy Collection. Some of the splinters of flint are very

small, and yet one of them only 3∕4 inch by 5∕8 inch shows the worn

edge resulting from use. An irregular subangular flint pebble somewhat

pear-shaped in form has some of its angles much battered, as if by

hammering, and has probably served as a hammer-stone, simply held in

the hand. Pebbles similarly bruised at the more salient parts have

frequently been found in the French caves.

* * * * *

The Brixham Cave specimens are now in the British Museum, and the

general result of the examination of them, is that they are found to

present analogous, and in some cases almost identical, forms with those

discovered in other caves, and in the ancient river-gravels, associated

with the remains of animals now for the most part extinct; and that

most of the implements prove not only to have been made by man, but to

have been actually in use before becoming imbedded in the cave-loam;

while from the whole of the flints discovered presenting these signs of

human workmanship or use upon them, it is evident that their presence

in the cave must in some measure be due to human agency, though it was

probably by means of water that they were deposited in the positions in

which they were found.

THE TOR BRYAN CAVES.

These caves, rock-shelters, or fissures are situated near |517|

Denbury, Devon, and were explored by Mr. J. L. Widger, with results

recorded by the late Mr. J. E. Lee.[2436] In them were found numerous

mammalian remains, including teeth of rhinoceros, hyæna, and bear, and

several worked flints. One of these, described as a “Flint Implement of

the older type,”[2437] was found beneath two thick stalagmite floors.

Many of the implements from these caves are now in the British Museum.

In the Happaway Cavern,[2438] Torquay, teeth of the same mammals were

found, together with human bones and apparently a flint flake as well

as many splinters of flint. Human remains were also found with those of

hyæna in a cave at Cattedown,[2439] Plymouth.

THE WOOKEY HYÆNA DEN.

The so-called Hyæna Den at Wookey Hole, near Wells, Somerset, has

been explored at different times between 1859 and 1863 by Prof. Boyd

Hawkins, F.R.S., assisted by the Rev. J. Williamson, F.G.S., Mr.

James Parker, F.G.S., and Mr. Henry Willett, F.G.S., and accounts of

the exploration have been published in the _Quarterly Journal of the

Geological Society_.[2440]

The cave is situated no great distance from the mouth of the large

and well-known cavern of Wookey Hole, and pierces the Dolomitic

Conglomerate. It was first discovered about the year 1849, in cutting

a mill-race along the edge of the rock, and consists of a principal

chamber, or _antrum_, connected with a bifurcated tunnel narrowing

as it recedes from the chamber, and with one branch terminating in a

vertical passage. At the time of the discovery, both the chamber and

the passage were for the greater part filled with red earth, stones,

and animal remains quite up to the roof, and in other parts to within

a few inches of it. In a few places only was there any deposit of

stalagmite. In the _antrum_, both the upper and lower part of the red

earth which filled the cave contained but few organic remains, though

they were abundant towards the middle of the deposit. In part of the

passage, however, there was an enormous accumulation of animal remains,

forming a bone-bed at the top of the cave-earth. The evidences of human

occupation were all found in the principal chamber. |518|

[Illustration: Fig. 413.—Wookey Hyæna Den. (Four views of implement.)

1∕1]

* * * * *

They consisted of bone-ashes, and some instruments of stone and bone.

The bone objects are described as two rudely fashioned arrow-heads

of the shape of an equilateral triangle, with the angles at the base

bevelled off. They have, however, both been lost, so that I am unable

to speak more positively as to their character. The stone objects

are still forthcoming, and some of them are preserved in the Museums

at Brighton and Oxford. One of the finest is shown in full size in

four views as Fig. 413, having been engraved for the |519| _Quarterly

Journal of the Geological Society_.[2441] It lay at a depth of 4 feet

from the roof, and at a distance of 12 feet from the present entrance.

It is described as having lain with some other implements in contact

with teeth of hyæna, between dark bands of manganese full of bony

splinters, which may have been old floors[2442] of the cave; so that

the occupation by the hyæna seems to have succeeded, or alternated

with, that by man. It is of white flint, and closely resembles in form

some of the smaller implements from the River-drift. It is of less size

than the ovoid instruments from Kent’s Cavern, and is not so neatly

made as some of them. A smaller instrument from the Wookey Hyæna Den

is of much the same form, but still less artistically worked. It is

2 3∕8 inches long and 1 3∕4 inches broad, and may be compared with that

from Kent’s Cavern shown in Fig. 389. Other specimens were more of the

“sling-stone” form; in addition to which there were numerous flakes

and splinters of flint and chert. One flake, which, though it has lost

its point, is still 2 3∕4 inches long, has been trimmed by secondary

chipping on the flat face, slightly so along one side, but on the

other, over half the surface of the flake, which is 1 1∕4 inches wide

near the base. When perfect this instrument was probably much like that

from Kent’s Cavern, Fig. 391. Both its edges show considerable signs of

wear by use. Another form described by Prof. Boyd Dawkins is roughly

pyramidal, with a smooth and flat base, and a cutting edge all round,

much like an instrument found in the cave of Aurignac by M. Lartet. Of

this form there were two examples, both made of chert from the Upper

Greensand.

* * * * *

The fauna of the cave, so far as the larger animals are concerned, is

the same as that of Kent’s Cavern, with the addition of _Rhinoceros

hemitœchus_, and of a lemming, and with the exception of _Machairodus_.

The exact method of accumulation of the deposits in this cave it is

very difficult to explain. Prof. Boyd Dawkins has suggested that during

its occupation by hyænas, and perhaps for some time afterwards, it was

subject to floods similar to those which now from time to time take

place in the caverns in the neighbourhood. One thing appears certain,

that previously to the filling up of the principal chamber it must, for

a longer or shorter period, have been occupied by man; who here also

again appears to have been associated with that same fauna, now either

totally or locally extinct, with which traces of his handiwork have

been discovered intermingled in so many other deposits of a similar

character, both on the Continent and in Britain. With regard to the

physical features of the country, Sir Charles Lyell[2443] observes,

“When I examined the spot in 1860, after I had been |520| 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.[2444] 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,[2445] was found at a depth of 4 1∕2 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[2446] 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 |521| consist

exclusively of flakes, some of them well and symmetrically formed, and

exhibiting on their edges the marks arising from use.

In some of the other caverns in the same district, Prof. Boyd Dawkins

has also discovered flint flakes associated with the remains of a

similar group of animals. The Oyle Cave,[2447] Tenby, and Hoyle’s

Mouth,[2448] have also afforded flint flakes associated with the

remains of a nearly similar fauna.

In the Coygan Cave,[2449] Carmarthenshire, Mr. Laws, of Tenby, found

two flint flakes with remains of mammoth and rhinoceros below a

foot of stalagmite. In the Ffynnon Beunos Cave,[2450] Dr. H. Hicks,

F.R.S., found several worked flints (one like Fig. 390) with bones of

Pleistocene animals below a stalagmite breccia, and in the Cae Gwyn

Cave[2451] a long scraper with bones of rhinoceros. A flint flake[2452]

was found under Drift outside the covered entrance to the cave. Dr.

Hicks regards these caves as Pre-Glacial, a view in which I cannot

agree.

In the Pont Newydd Cave[2453] near Cefn, Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.R.S.,

found, with plentiful remains of the Pleistocene fauna, including

_Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, a number of implements of distinctly

palæolithic forms made of felstone and chert, as well as one of flint.

This cave can be proved to be Post-Glacial.

Another cave which may be mentioned is that known as King Arthur’s

Cave, near Whitchurch, Ross, which was explored by the late Rev. W.

S. Symonds, F.G.S., of Pendock.[2454] In this instance flint flakes,

and cores formed of chert were found in the cave-earth, with bones

and teeth of the usual mammals, in one part of the cavern; while in

another, beneath a thick layer of stalagmite, itself covered by what

appeared to be a portion of an old river-bed, flint flakes were found

associated with the same fauna. Mr. Symonds assigns these fluviatile

deposits to an ancient river now represented by the Wye, which flows

300 feet below the level of the cave. If this view be correct, there

can, as he observes, hardly be better authenticated evidence of the

antiquity of man in the records of cave-history, than that afforded by

|522| this old river-bed overlying the thick stalagmite, beneath which

the human relics were sealed up.

Since this book first appeared several important and interesting

discoveries have been made in British Caves between Chesterfield and

Worksop. Perhaps the most remarkable are those made in Creswell Crags

on the north-eastern border of Derbyshire, by the Rev. J. Magens

Mello,[2455] and Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.,[2456] who commenced

their labours in the year 1875. The ossiferous deposits, in which

also traces of man were found, lay both in fissures and in caves in

the Lower Magnesian Limestone. Those which yielded the most important

stone implements were the Robin Hood and the Church Hole Caves, though

Mother Grundy’s Parlour also contributed a few. In the Robin Hood Cave

a stalagmitic breccia lay above the cave-earth. In this were found

implements of quartzite and iron-stone, eighty-six in number, ruder

than those of flint in the breccia. By the kindness of the Council of

the Geological Society I am able to give a few representations of those

of both classes. Fig. 413A shows an implement formed from a quartzite

pebble worked at the point and side and of a distinctly Palæolithic

type. It is much like the specimen from Saltley, Fig. 450B, and some

made of similar material found in the neighbourhood of Toulouse.

[Illustration: Fig. 413A.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

Fig. 413B is of iron-stone, and so far as form is concerned might well

have been found in a bed of old River-drift. Some hammer-stones and

a side chopper of quartzite, in form like Fig. 443, were also found

in the cave-earth. Some flint tools from the breccia are shown in the

next three figures. Fig. 413C recalls one of the blades from Kent’s

Cavern, Fig. 390, though of |523| smaller dimensions. Fig. 413D is

almost identical with Fig. 399, while the borer, Fig. 413E, resembles

those of the Neolithic Period. In all, there were found in the Robin

Hood Cave no less than 1040 pieces of stone and bone showing traces

of human workmanship. Among the bone objects were an awl and numerous

pointed antler-tips, but the most remarkable is a smooth and rounded

fragment of a rib having the head and forepart of a horse incised upon

it. It is shown in Fig. 413F. In the Church Hole Cave 213 relics of

human workmanship were found, principally flakes of flint, splinters,

and quartzite stones. Two of the flakes, one of which is shown in Fig.

413G, are worn away on one edge only, as if the other edge had been

protected by a wooden handle as suggested in the sketch.

[Illustration: Fig. 413B.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 413C.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 413D.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 413E.—Robin Hood Cave.]

Among the bone objects was an oval plate notched at the sides and a

bone needle, Fig. 413H. It is of larger size than is usual in caves of

this period. |524|

The fauna comprised cave-lion, hyæna, bear, Irish elk, woolly

rhinoceros, and mammoth. A fine upper canine of _Machairodus_ was also

found. Most of the objects described are now in the British Museum. We

have here another instance of quartzite implements of Palæolithic type,

being found well to the north of the area in which drift-implements are

usually discovered.

[Illustration: Fig. 413F.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕1]

The relics found in the Victoria Cave[2457] at Settle belong to a later

period than that of which I am treating.

A cave at Ballynamintra,[2458] Co. Waterford, is Neolithic.

[Illustration: Fig. 413G.—Church Hole Cave. 1∕1]

The Mentone caves would open so large a field for discussion that I

content myself with a passing reference to them.

[Illustration: Fig. 413H.—Church Hole Cave. 1∕1]

Were no other evidence forthcoming, the results of an examination of

the British caves already described would justify us in concluding that

in this country man co-existed with a number of the larger mammals now

for the most part absolutely extinct, while others have long since

disappeared from this portion of the globe. The association, under

slightly differing circumstances, |525| and in several distinct cases,

of objects of human industry with the remains of this extinct fauna, in

which so many of the animals characteristic of the existing fauna are

“conspicuous by their absence,” in undisturbed beds, and for the most

part beneath a thick coating of stalagmite, leads of necessity to this

conclusion. This becomes, if possible, more secure when the results of

the exploration of other caves on the Continent of Western Europe are

taken into account. How long a period may have intervened between the

extinction, or migration, of these animals and the present time is, of

course, another question; but such changes in the animal world as had

already taken place at least three thousand years ago, do not appear

to occur either suddenly or even with great rapidity; and, leaving the

stalagmite out of consideration, we have already seen that in some

instances the physical configuration of the country in the immediate

neighbourhood of the caves seems to have been greatly changed since the

period of their infilling.

These changes are perhaps more conclusively illustrated in the case of

the old river deposits, in which the remains of the same extinct fauna

as that of the caves occur associated with implements manufactured by

the hand of man, to which we must now direct our attention.

|526|