34 THE FORESTS OP ENGLAND. 



broad and brimming valleys on three sides of their forest 

 home, these varied .and interesting forms of animal life 

 lived and flourished for untold centuries, vastly out- 

 numbering the early and struggling race of man. The 

 zoological account of the times which are thus brought 

 before us and of those which succeeded, relates to three 

 distinct periods. The first and the second of these periods 

 are prehistoric, and belong to the so-called Stone Age in 

 South -Eastern Britain. But although named prehistoric, 

 these times, as we shall see, are far richer than the suc- 

 ceeding historic age in the variety and character of the 

 animal life they have bequeathed to us. They were of 

 vastly longer duration. Everything favoured the multi- 

 plication and perpetuation of animal life, and the conse- 

 quence has been a bequest of memorials in the form of 

 the remains of the animals themselves, of which great as 

 are the discoveries of the past quarter of a century we 

 at present can form no estimate. Indeed, the stores of 

 fossil relics which have so far been recovered are probably 

 but the beginning of a vast national museum and of 

 innumerable private collections in the future." 



Some of the caves in which such remains are found 

 are places of popular resort by holiday visitors to the 

 forest. One of the localities is the Danes' Holes and 

 Turpin's Cave, of which the same writer says : 



" The ancient British troglodyte, returning to his native 

 land, would still find ample underground dwellings ready 

 for his use. Indeed, the caves of Essex are among the 

 oldest and most interesting of its antiquities. The myste- 

 rious subterranean chambers in Hanging Wood not only 

 tempt the footsteps of the Saturday afternoon rambler to- 

 day ; for centuries they have sorely perplexed the anti- 

 quaries who have examined them. The central shaft down 

 which we descend some 60 or 80 ft. deep ; the wide 

 chambers at the base in which we find ourselves as we 

 peer into galleries around supposing our light not to 

 have been extinguished, and our breathing to have been 



