342 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



though this deposit is cliicfly rich in remains of the reindeer and 

 >viki horse, — both of these animals having been eaten in great 

 numbers by the ancient denizens of tlie cavern, — there is here a to- 

 tal absence of the remains of the cave lion, cave bear, hyena, and 

 those large extinct pachyderms that have elsewhere been found in 

 ossiferous deposits. Of the existence of early man in Western 

 Europe with the mammoth, rhinoceros, hyena, etc., there can now 

 bo Mule doubt; but at the time when he occupied the caves of 

 Dordogne and the Aveyron, and left behind, in the hearth stuff of 

 these caves, such indubitable evidence of his long-continued resi- 

 dence, the larger pachyderms and more formidable beasts of J)rey 

 had apparently given place to vast migratory herds of reindeer 

 and wild horses, upon which the cave men subsisted, and of the 

 bones and horns of which their weapons of the chase were made. 

 The mammalian fauna of such caves as Kent's Hole, Torquay or 

 Genisla Cave, Gibraltar, may be more varied and remarkable, 

 but as regards the excellence of the drawings of animals on some 

 of the bones, the tine workmanship of the barbed harpoons and 

 bone needles, no cavern has yielded a better or iiuer series than 

 Bruniquel. — Quarterly Science. 



Kent's cavern. 



Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S., at the meeting of the Bntish Association, 

 was called on by the President to read the " Fifth Report of the 

 Committee on the Exploration of Kent's Cavern." He said tiiat 

 beneath the floor of the "vestibule" was a layer of black soil, 

 6 to 9 inches deep, which had yielded oGG Hint implements, 

 bones and teeth of recent and extinct animals, charcoal. Hint 

 cones, etc. It had been objected that people could never have 

 lived in the caverns, because smoke would have suffocated them. 

 An experiment which had been tried, in burning six fagots of 

 wood, showed the fallacy of the objection. In the exploration 

 of the cavern, a daily journal had been kept, and every circum- 

 stance was noted down. 3,948 boxes of fossil bones had been 

 found, and these Professor Boyd Dawkins undertook to examine for 

 the purpose of determining the species to which they belonged. 

 Among other objects a bone needle had been found in the black 

 band beneath the stalagmitic floor. The eye was capable of 

 carrying a thread the thickness of thin twine. A bone harpoon, 

 or tish-spear, forked on one side only, had been met with. 

 Other undoubted evidences of early human art had been found. 

 During the years 1868-9, Mr. Everett, who is engaged by the 

 liajah of Sarawak to explore the caves of Borneo, visited Kent's 

 Hole for the purpose of familiaiizino; himself with the mode of 

 0})eration. Mr. Pengelly then detailed the various layers under- 

 lying the stalagmitic floor, in which he was aided by a series of 

 large diagrams. The cave earth, or floor underneath the sta- 

 lagmite, was full of flint implements, teeth of the mammoth, 

 bear, hyena, etc., and gnawed and split bones. Inscriptions 

 duted 1G88 had been found on the stalagmitic walls of that part 



