1874.] in Kent's Cavern. 145 
conviction that man had, in Britain, been the contemporary 
of animals which had become extinct, and that his first 
appearance was of higher antiquity than had generally been 
supposed. 
In the autumn of 1858, the exploration at Brixham being 
still in progress, Dr. Falconer, having visited M. Boucher de 
Perthes, urged Mr. Prestwich to proceed to the valley of the 
Somme, and make a careful examination of the sections for 
himself. This was accordingly complied with, and the 
latter geologist, by embodying the results of his observa- 
tions in a paper read to the Royal Society in May, 1859, 
may be said to have completed the revolution. Sir Charles 
Lyell, when opening the Geological Section of the British 
Association at Aberdeen, in September of the same year, not 
only announced his adhesion to the new opinion, but became 
one of its most powerful advocates; and so great and 
widely spread was the interest felt in the question that 
when, in 1863, he published his ‘‘ Geological Evidences of 
the Antiquity of Man,” he had the pleasure of placing the 
third edition of his work in the hands of the public before 
the end of the year. 
It being felt to be on many accounts desirable to make a 
systematic exploration of the large branches of Kent’s 
Cavern still remaining intact, the British Association, when 
assembled at Bath, in 1864, appointed a large committee to 
carry on the work, and placed at their disposal a consider- 
able grant of money for the purpose. ‘The investigation, 
under the immediate superintendence of Mr. Vivian and 
myself—the only two resident members of the committee— 
was commenced on 28th March, 1865; it has been con- 
tinued to the present time, and is still in progress. Nine 
annual reports have been sent in to the Association and 
ordered to be printed, and ample grants of money have been 
voted every year. 
It is my object in the present paper to state what stone 
implements have been discovered in the cavern, and to call 
attention to the fact that whilst all the noteworthy speci- 
mens are unpolished, and found with the remains of extin& 
mammals, they belong to two distinét classes, eras, and 
stages of civilisation. 
Though there are said to be persons capable of believing 
that the so-called stone implements found in Kent’s Hole 
and other caverns, as well as in the river-gravels, are merely 
natural products, it is not my intention to say one word on 
that question. It has been treated so fully and so ably by 
various writers as to deprive me of any pretence for attempting 
