CHAP, vii.] RIVER-DRIFT MEN PRECEDED CAVE-MEN. 197 



crystalline stalagmite, in some places nearly 12 feet 

 thick, " formed after the materials of the breccia were 

 deposited, but before the introduction of the cave-earth 

 commenced. After the stalagmite just mentioned, it 

 was in extensive parts of the cavern broken up by some 

 natural agency, and much of the latter, if not of both, 

 was dislodged and carried out of the cavern before the 

 first instalment of cave-earth was deposited." 1 We may 

 therefore conclude that the interval was long enough to 

 allow of great physical changes in the district, by which 

 the contents of the caverns were affected. An 2 imple- 

 ment of the Eiver-drift type, similar to Fig. 61, has been 

 discovered in the famous cave at Brixham, explored also 

 under the superintendence of Mr. Pengelly. And it 

 may most probably be referred to the same early stage 

 as those from the breccia in Kent's Hole. 



The River -drift Men preceded the Cave-men 

 in the British Caves. 



From these observations it is evident that the Kiver- 

 drift men inhabited the caves of Devonshire, Derbyshire, 

 and Nottinghamshire, in an early stage of the history 

 of caverns, and that after an interval, to be measured in 

 Kent's Hole by the above-mentioned physical changes, 

 the Cave-men found shelter in the same places. The 

 former also followed the chase in the valley of the Elwy 

 and the vale of Clwydd in North Wales, and the latter 

 found ample food in the numerous reindeer, horses, and 

 bisons then wandering over the plains extending from 

 the Mendip Hills to the Quantocks, and the low fertile 



1 Journal of the Plymouth Institution, February 18, 1875, pp. 17, 18. 

 3 See Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, p. 468, Fig. 409. 



