1874.] in Kent's Cavern. 153 
the time of their descendants, or their successors, prior to 
the Hyzenine or Cave-earth era, it had reached a continental 
condition. This latter condition has so long ceased that 
the earliest traditions respecting our land recognise it as an 
island, even though they profess to go back to a time when 
Anglesea was not yet detached from Wales.* 
Readers of Sir C. Lyell’s ‘‘ Antiquity of Man” are aware 
that he recognises two distinct periods in geologically recent 
times when Britain was in a continental condition. He 
supposes that the well-known ‘‘forest of Cromer,” in Norfolk, 
in which Scotch and spruce first were prevalent, flourished 
at the close of the first of them; that in the intervening 
period, the land north of the Thames and Bristol Channel 
was gradually submerged until a few mountain tops alone 
remained above the sea; and, from the evidence then 
available, that the first appearance of man when - 
he ranged from all parts of the Continent into the British 
area, took place during the second continental period.” ft 
If, however, the new evidence from Kent’s Cavern has 
been correctly interpreted above, the first appearance of 
Man in Britain was prior to the second continental period, 
and must have been at least as early as the previous insular 
era. Indeed, unless we suppose him to have possessed the 
means of navigation, it must have been in the first 
continental period. 
It is worthy of remark that the hypothesis that the land 
south of the Thames and Bristol Channel was not submerged 
during the interval separating the two continental periods, 
harmonises well with the supposition that Devonshire was 
occupied by man during that interval. 
Without at present attempting to pursue further the 
question of the relation of the oldest Devonshire men yet 
known to Glacial times, I cannot divest myself of the belief 
that the complete exploration of Kent’s Cavern will furnish 
a definite reply to it. 
Though no one acquainted with the present state of 
the evidence would attempt to express in years, or other 
astronomical units, the amount of time represented by the de- 
posits of the Ovine and Hyznine periods, it cannot be doubted 
that the spindle whorls, the pottery, the bone combs, and 
the fibule of the Black Mould—the first or uppermost of 
these—go back to Romano-British and Pre-Roman times, to 
at least two thousand years from the present day as a 
Minimum. All thatisknown about the Granular Stalagmite— 
* See the 67th of the Historical Triads of Britain. 
+ Antiquity of Man, pp. 282-3. 
