82 



KNOW^LKDGE * 



[February 1, 1888. 



ROYAL VICTORIA HALL. 



{To the Editor o/ Knowledge.) 



R. F. W. RUDLER gave an admirable lecture 

 on Tuesday, the 17th inst., on "Caves and 

 Cave Men." The lecturer began by saying 

 that the London clay, gravel, and sand are 

 too soft to admit of the formation of caverns, 

 which occur chiefly in the chalk and lime- 

 stone. He showed, by photographs of the 

 rocks near Flamborough Head and on the Dorsetshire 

 coast, how the destructive action of the waves, keeping up 

 a perpetual cannonade of small stones against the cliffs, 

 washes away the softer portions of the rocks so as to form 

 caverns. Water acts also by dissolving the chalk. The 

 rain-water absorbs carbonic acid from the air, which enables 

 it, as it trickles through the fissures, to dissolve a little of 

 the chalk or limestone, thus gradually enlarging the fissures 

 till it forms large caverns. Mr. Rudler, with the help of 

 some beautiful photographs, explained how the water, 

 charged with limestone, drips from the roof and forms 

 stalactites and stalagmites — the former resembling icicles 

 hanging from the roof, the latter formed underneath them 

 by the drip, and rising in conical masses from the floor, or 

 sometimes consolidated into a floor of remarkable hardness. 

 The cave of Gayleureuth, in Cxermany, is of this kind. 

 Under the stalagmite floor is a red-brown loamy earth, 

 which has been long known to contain bones. Goldfuss and 

 Cuvier discovered that these were the bones of extinct 

 animals. In 1822 the skeleton of a lai-ge animal was found 

 in a lead-mine in Derbyshire, and this proved to be the 

 skeleton of a rhinoceros, an animal now found only in 

 Africa. In the cave of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, were found 

 an immense number of bones, which Dr. Buckland ascer- 

 tained to be chiefly those of the hyena, now met with only 

 in Africa and Asia. Other bones which were found with them 

 appeared to have been gnawed ; and, comparing these with 

 bones gnawed by hyenas in Wombwell's menagerie, Buck- 

 land found that they had been gnawed precisely in the same 

 manner. Clearly, then, this had once been a den of hyenas. 

 Other animals of which bones have been found in this or 

 other caves are the cave-bear, the cave-lion, the Irish elk, 

 and the mammoth. What this latter animal w,as Hke we 

 are not left to infer merely from its skeleton, for a carcass 

 of one was actually found in Siberia so perfectly preserved 

 by the ice in which it was imbedded that dogs ate some of 

 the flesh. It was a kind of elephant, with long curved 

 tusks and long hair, fitting it to live in comparatively cold 

 climates. 



Was man living at the time when these animals existed 

 here ? Other caves enable us to answer this question in 

 the affirmative. In 1852, Professor Boyd Dawkins found 

 in Wookey's Hole, in Somersetshire, together with bones of 

 the hyena and cave-bear, a number of stone weapons, 

 evidently chipped and sharpened by the hand of man. In 

 Kent's Cavern, at Torquay, are two distinct strata contain- 

 ing bones, separated by a floor of stalagmite 2 feet thick. 

 The upper layer contains stone imjJements much less rude 

 in con.struction, evidently the product of a higher stage of 

 culture, together with needles and fish-hooks made of bone, 

 and also the skull of a very formidable kind of tiger. These 

 early men were not without some knowledge of art ; for we 

 find scratched on some of their bone implements very toler- 

 able representations of the reindeer, the mammoth, and the 

 Irish elk, and even of a hunt, with the figure of a man. 

 The cave-men appear to have lived by hunting and fishing, 

 with weapons of stone, bone, and wood, and to have clothed 

 themselves with skins, which they sewed together with bone 

 needles. When men took to agriculture and learnt to build 



huts, they, as a rule, no longer lived in caves. But caves 

 have been used in later times as rallying-points, or for 

 purposes of concealment or defence, or as places of 

 sepulture. 



The lecture was illustrated by excellent lantern views. 

 It was listened to with profound attention, and greatly 

 applauded at its close. The chairman, Mr. Marshall, 

 announced that the lecture on the 24:th inst. would be by 

 Professor Bonney, F.R.S., on " The Oldest Monuments in 

 Britain and Brittany." We understand that he will be 

 followed, on the 31st, by Professor Ram.say, on " Speech 

 made Visible; or Picture-writing as it was and as it is"; and 

 that on February 7 Dr. Percy Frankland will lecture on 

 "Germs in the Air"; and on February 14, Mr. E. 

 Wethered on " Volcanoes and Earthquakes." 



M. C. Martineau. 



1 Clifton Place, Sussex Square, W. 



NOTES ON AMERICANISMS. 



Grist. A large quantity. So far as I know, this term 

 is not used in this sense in England, even as a provincial 

 expression. 



Grit. A term for strength of character. It probably 

 had its origin in districts where grindstones or millstones 

 were much used ; for the value of these depends on their 

 strength or hardness of texture, and only sandstone pos- 

 sessing good qualities for grinding can properly be called 

 iirit, or be said to have <irit. The term is probably in use in 

 parts of England in the same sense, but I have not heard it 

 so used, nor seen it in local papers or other provincial 

 literature. 



Gritty, naturally, as the adjective derived from " grit," 

 signifies spirited or courageous. 



Grocery, for a grocer's shop, is as much English as 

 American ; but "grocery" used for a bar-room is decidedly 

 an Americanism. " Fetch on your groceries " addressed to 

 a bar-keeper or saloon-tender signifies bring forward whisky 

 and other spirits. 



Groggery is, however, also used instead of " grocery," as 

 equivalent to our English " grog-shop." 



Ground Hog Day in certain States represents Candlemas 

 D.ay (February 2), because the ground hog [Aj-ctomi/s monax) 

 is looked for on that day. If seen to come out of his hole 

 and return to it on February 2 cold weather will last long ; 

 but if he stays out there will be an eaily spring. 



Ground-nut. The pea-nut, so called because it buries its 

 pods underground, after flowering, till the pods are ripened. 

 The pea-nut is a peculiarly American institution, like 

 chronic catarrh. It is characterised, so far as a stranger in 

 the land can judge, by an entire absence of all desii-able 

 qualities, and several hateful ones, as a most unplea.sant 

 and difl'usive odour, and a power of dispersing its shells 

 over a singularly wide area during the process of consump- 

 tion by free and independent youth. 

 Ground-peas. The pea-nut again. 

 Gruv for grieved is, let us trust, a true Americanism. 

 Guardeen. a quaint New England way of pronouncing 

 guardiati. 



Guess, To. The use of this word to imply belief rather 

 than conjecture is now an Americanism, though formerly 

 pure English ; its use where there is not only belief, but 

 knowledge, is even more characteristically American, or 

 rather Yankee, for the usage is provincial even in the 

 States. 



If we consider the origin of the word, which really signi- 

 fies to get, we can understand that the meanings given to it 

 should be varied among English-speaking races. Thus, when 



