196 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Sept. 28, 1883. 



accounting for their presence in the diluvium. This 

 opinion Dr. Buckland held notwithstanding Mr. M'Enery's 

 statement that in no instance had he discovered evidence 

 of breaches or ovens in the floor, but one continuous 

 plate of stalagmite diffused uniformly over the loam. 

 In justification of Dr. Buckland's conduct, it should be 

 mentioned that he himself had explored Kent's Cavern 

 previously to Mr. ^M'Enery's researches therein, and, while 

 doing so, had discovered a flint implement. This, how- 

 ever, he found under such circumstances as did not con- 

 flict with his published opinion on the low antiquity of 

 man. 



But it is doubtful whether even Dr. Buckland's faith 

 in his early convictions remained unshaken to the end, 

 for when pressed by an intimate friend, a Professor at 

 Oxford, to prepare a new edition of his " Reliquas Dilu- 

 viana' " and his " Bridgewater Treatise," he excused him- 

 self on the ground that the work would not be editing 

 " but rewriting." 



In 1840 Mr. Godwin Austen, F.G.S,, read a paper 

 before the Geological Society of London on the Bone 

 Caves of Devonshire. Speaking of Kent's Cavern, Mr. 

 Austin said that human remains and works of art, such 

 as arrow-heads and knives of flint, occurred in all parts 

 of the cave, and throughout the entire thickness of the 

 clay, and no distinction founded on condition, distribu- 

 tion, or relative position, could be observed, whereby the 

 human could be separated from the other reliqua. He 

 also expressed the opinion that the bones and works of 

 art must have been introduced into the cave before the 

 flooring of stalagmite had been formed. These state- 

 ments, however, attracted little or no attention at the 

 time. 



In 1846 the Torquay Natural History Society appointed 

 a committee, consisting of Dr. Battersby, Mr. Vivian, and 

 Mr. Pengelly, to make a few diggings in Kent's Cavern for 

 the purpose of obtaining specimens for their museum. In 

 the report of their investigations this committee stated 

 that they had established the important point that relics 

 of human art were found beneath the unbroken floor of 

 stalagmite. After taking every precaution by sweeping 

 the surface and examining most minutely whether there 

 were any traces of the floor having been previously dis- 

 turbed, they broke through the solid stalagmite in three 

 difl'erent parts of the cavern, and in each instance found 

 flint knives. In the spot where the most highly finished 

 specimen was found, the passage was so low that it was 

 extremely difticult with quarrymen's tools and good work- 

 men to break throiigh the crust, so that the supposition 

 that it had been previously disturbed was impossible. But 

 such was the incredulity with which the inferences 

 deducible from these facts were received that when the 

 report was printed in the "Quarterly Journal" of the 

 Geological Society, it was formally announced that the 

 authors alone were responsible for the facts and opinions 

 contained in their respective papers. 



This state of incredulity and apathy lasted until 1858, 

 when some workmen engaged in a limestone quarry on 

 Windmill-hill, near the fishing town of Brixham, in South 

 Devon, unexpectedly broke a hole through what proved to 

 be the roof of an unknown and unsuspected cavern. A 

 committee of exploration was immediately appointed and 

 placed under the superintendence of Professor Prestwich 

 and Mr. Pengelly. The facts which mainly contributed 

 to the decision to have this cave systematically exploretl 

 were that it was a virgin cave which had been hermetically 

 sealed during an incalculably long period, the last previous 

 event in its history being the introduction of a reindeer 

 antler found attached to the upper surface of the stalagmite 



floor, and therefore it was free from the objection sometimes 

 urged against Kent's Cavern — namely, that, having been 

 known from time immemorial, and up to 1825 always open 

 to all comers, it had perhaps been ransacked again and 

 again : secondly, it was believed and proved to be a com- 

 paratively small cavern, so that its complete exploration 

 was not likely to require a large expenditure of time or 

 money. 



At the end of a period of twelve months, during which 

 time the cave had been subjected to a thorough and 

 searching investigation, the committee were able to report 

 that eight flint tools had been found in various parts of 

 the cavern, all of them inosculating with bones of mam- 

 malia, at depths varying from nine to forty-two inches 

 in the cave earth, on which lay a sheet of stalagmite 

 from three to eight inches thick, and having within it 

 and on it, relics of lion, hyaena, bear, mammoth, rhino- 

 ceros, and reindeer. 



The results of these explorations at Brixham had an 

 enormous influence in impressing the scientific world 

 generally with the value and importance of the geological 

 evidence of man's antiquity. 



Among the first fruits of the awakening was a paper 

 by Professor Prestwich, read to the Royal Society, May 26, 

 1859, on the occurrence of flint implements associated 

 with the remains of animal of extinct species in beds of a 

 late geological period in France at Ameins and Abbeville, 

 and in England at Hoxne. In this paper Professor Prest- 

 wich distinctly stated that it was the discoveries which he 

 had witnessed at Brixham which first fully impressed him 

 with the validity of the doubts thrown upon the previously 

 prevailing opinions with respect to such remains in caves. 

 Sir Charles Lyell, too, in his address to the Geological 

 Section of the British Association at Aberdeen, September, 

 1859, stated that the facts brought to light in connection 

 with the explorations in the Brixham Cave had prepared geo- 

 logists to admit that scepticism in regard to the cave 

 evidence in favour of the antiquity of man had been 

 pushed to an extreme. 



But probably the greatest proof of the change of 

 opinion which began to take place in the scientific world 

 in regard to this subject was that no less than three 

 editions of Sir Charles Lyell's bulky work on the " Anti- 

 quity of Man," which first appeared in February, 1863, 

 were published in the course of ten months. 



The result of the researches at Brixham quickened a 

 desire to re-examine the Kent's Cavern evidence, and, 

 accordingly, in 1864, a committee was formed, and received 

 a grant of money from the British Association for that pur- 

 pose. The investigation was begun on March 28, 1865. The 

 committee was annually reappointed, and the work con- 

 tinued without intermission to June 19, 1880. The total 

 money grants amounted to £1,900, together with £63 re- 

 ceived from various private sources. 



In M'Enery's work was a diagram of three remarkable 

 canine teeth, belonging to a group of carnivorre to which in 

 1846 Professor Owen gave the name of Machairodus 

 lalidens. A considerable amount of scepticism existed for 

 many years as to whether these specimens were really 

 found in Kent's Cavern, it being contended that, from its 

 zoological aflinities, Machairodus latidens must have be- 

 longed to an earlier fauna than that represented by the 

 ordinary cave mammals. It was therefore naturally hoped 

 that the re-exploration of the cavern would set this question 

 at rest. 



However, it was not until after the lapse of seven years 

 and four months that the President, while engaged in 

 washing a " find," discovered a well-marked incisor of 

 Machairodus latidens with a left ramus of lower jaw of 



