2 PROFESSOR T. MCKENNY HUGHES, M.A. 



modified by man. In quite recent times, the soft New 

 Red Sandstone lias 'been scooped out into cells and summer- 

 houses. The chalk has been excavated from very early times 

 in the search for flint, and traces of sojourn in such pits are 

 not wanting. We need not stop seriously to discuss the 

 suggestion that Fingal's Cave was excavated by man. The 

 rock-hewn tombs around Jerusalem, the catacombs of Italy 

 and Egypt are artificial caves. 



All along the Yezere and other cliff- margined valleys in the 

 South of France we see the natural caves and rock- shelters, 

 modified sometimes by man, walled up and occupied as store- 

 houses, or even as dwellings. History tells us that those 

 caves were frequently held by troops during the long occu- 

 pation of that part of France by the English. The Rock of 

 Tayac, like Gibraltar, "a kind of fortress entirely hollowed out 

 of the rock," is frequently mentioned in the history of the wars 

 of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.* And the Aquitani, 

 when pressed by Caesar's troops, retreated to their caves in 

 South-central France. I have heard of a man who lived for 

 some time in a cave in Yorkshire, coming out at night for 

 food ; milk from the neighbours' cows, eggs, or whatever else 

 he could lay hands on. There were many odds and ends 

 in that cave which might have been relics of his sojourn, as 

 well as others of more remote antiquity.f 



There are hardly any records of research in caves which are 

 known to have been occupied in recent or historic times. A 

 systematic examination of all the caves in which history tells 

 us the inhabitants of any district once took refuge, and an 

 exact description of all found and observed in them, would be 

 very interesting, and might furnish important evidence 

 bearing upon doubtful questions. 



Artificial caves, however, or artificially modified caves, form 

 a very small proportion of those with which we have chiefly to 

 do. The caves in which primaeval man lived, and into which 

 in old times hyenas dragged carcasses of the animals they 

 killed or found dead along the river- courses, were all natural 

 caves. So are the celebrated stalactite caves of Germany and 

 America. But we must inquire into the mode of formation 

 of natural caves if we would understand the conditions which 

 surrounded primasval man or speculate on his age. 



There are sea- caves formed by the waves that lash the 

 cliffs as if sounding them to find their weaker places. The water 



* Reliquice Aquitanicce, p. 4. 



t Exploration of Cave Ha, Journ. Anthropological Inst. 1874. 



