EXETER AND TORQUAY MEETING. II. 



perfect in workmanship than those found in the breccia. The 

 granular stalagmite overlying the cave earth was apparently 

 deposited under muddier conditions than the crystalline, when 

 there was more sediment in the water. Therefore, the stalag- 

 mite was not so clear. In the stalagmite were also found the 

 remains of extinct animals, and not the works of man, but man 

 himself, his bones. All these deposits -of which he had spoken 

 belonged to the Palaeolithic Age ; but, when they passed upward 

 to the black mould, they took a great leap. Between the 

 granular stalagmite and the black mould there was a great gap 

 in time, which should have been filled by the Neolithic Age. 

 But there was no continuity, for in the black mould they were 

 faced with the remains of old British art of pre- Roman times. 



Starting at one end of the series of cases, Mr. Somervail then 

 exhibited the collection, beginning with the recent the cracked 

 cup and blacked bottle of latter days and working back to the 

 dim twilights and faint echoes of the past. The black mould, 

 which varied in depth from three inches to a foot, yielded 

 bronze rings and other articles, slate spindle whorls, black 

 pottery, worked flints, and human teeth and finger bones, found 

 side by side in equality of mortality with the jaw of the fox. Mr. 

 Somervail pointed to the human interest attaching to a pile of 

 Pecten shells, placed one upon the other, as if the neat house- 

 wife of this period had used these primitive vessels as culinary 

 utensils. They were found thus in a recess of the cave, which 

 probably served as a cupboard. The principal products of the 

 black band were gnawed bones, hyaenine remains. The cave 

 earth was prolific in flint implements and hyaenine deposits, 

 including the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, Irish elk, deer, 

 horse, all represented in large quantities. Among the speci- 

 mens of man's work here found were a bone awl, a harpoon or 

 fish spear, and a bone needle with a finely-bored eye. All the 

 relics were assorted according to each of the five foot levels of 

 the cave earth. Parts of human skulls were found in the 

 granular stalagmite, and in the breccia old rough stone imple- 

 ments. 



