Sept. 27, 1883J 



NA TVRh 



529 



habits of the hyaena, the great preponderance of his remains in 

 the cave eaith, and their absence in the breccia, it seems impos- 

 sible to avoid the conclusion that he was not an occupant of 

 Britain during the earlier period. 



The acceptance of this conclusion, however, neces-itates the 

 belief (1) that man was resident in Britain long before the hyaena 

 was. 



(2) That it was possible for the hyaena to reach Britain between 

 the deposition of the breccia and the deposition of the cave 

 earth. In other word?, that Britain was a part of the Continent 

 during this interval. 



Sir C. I yell, it will be remembered, recognised the following 

 geographical changes within the British area between the Newer 

 Pliocene and historical times (*ee " Antiquity of Man," edition 



1873. PP- 33'. 332)- 



Firstly, a pre-Glacial Continental period, towards the close of 

 which the Forest of Cromer flourished, and the climate was 

 s iniewhat milder than at present. 



Secondly, a period of submergence, when the land north of the 

 'I hames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was reduced 

 to an archipelago. This was a part of the Glacial age, and ice- 

 bergs floated in 1 ur waters. 



Thirdly, a second Continental period, when there were glaciers 

 in the higher mountains of Scotland and Wales. 



Fourthly, the breaking up of the land through submergence, 

 and a gradual change of temperature, resulting in the- present 

 geographical and climatal conditions. 



It is obvious that if, as I venture to think, the Kent's Cavern 

 breccia was deposited during the first Continental period, the 

 1st of mammalian remains found in it should not clash with the 

 list of such remains from the Forest of Cromer, which, as we have 

 iust seen, flourished at that time. I called attention to these 

 lists in 1874, pointing out that according to Prof. Boyd Daw kins 

 ("Cave-Hunting," p. 418) the forest bed had at that time 

 yielded twenty-six species of mammals, sixteen of them being 

 extinct, and ten recent ; that both the breccia and the forest bed 

 had yielded remains of the cave-bear, but that in neither of 

 them hail at y relic or trace of hyaena been found. A monograph 

 on the " Vertebrata of the Forest Bed Series" was publi lied in 

 1SS2 by Mr. E. T. Newton, F G.S., who, including many addi- 

 lional species found si mewhat recently, but eliminating alt those 

 about which there was any uncertainty, said : " We still have 

 firry nine species left, of which thirty are still living, and nine- 

 teen are extinct" (p. 135). Though the number of the species 

 has thus been almost doubled, and the presence of the cave-bear 

 remains undoubted, it continues to be the fact that no trace of 

 trie hyaena has been found in the forest bed, and no suspicion 

 exists as to his probable presence amongst the eliminated un- 

 certain species. 



It should be added that no relic or indication of hyaena was 

 met with in the "Fourth Bed" of Brixham Windmill Hill 

 Cavern, believed to be the equivalent of the Kent's Hole 

 breccia. 



I am not unmindful of the fact that my evidence is negative 

 only, and that raising a structure on it maybe building on a 

 sandy foundation. Nevertheless, it appears to me, as it did ten 

 years ago, strung enough to bear the following inferences : — 



1. That the hyaena did not reach Britain until its last 

 Continental period. 



2. That the men who made the Palaeolithic nodule-tools found 

 in the oldest known deposit in Kent's Cavern arrived during the 

 previous gteit submergence, or, what is more probable — indeed, 

 what alone -eems possible unless they were navigators — during 

 the first Continental period. In short, I have little or no doubt 

 that the earliest Devonians we have sighted were either of 

 Glacial, or, more probably, of pre-Glacial age. 



It canm t be necessary to add that while the discovery of 



le.i.ains of hyaena in the forest bed of Cromer, or any other 



contemporary deposit, would be utterly fatal to my argument, it 



would leave intact all other evidence in support of the doctrine 



f British Glacial or pre-Glacial man. 



.some of my friends accepted the foregoing inferences in 1873, 

 while others, whose judgment I value, declined them. Since 

 that date no adverse fact or thought has presented itself to me ; 

 I iut through the researches and di coveries of others in com- 

 paratively distant parts of our island, and especially in East 

 Anglia, the belief in British \ re-Glacial man appears to have 

 risen above the stage of ridicule, and to have a decided prospect 

 of genei al scientific acceptance at no distant time. 



1 must, before closing, devote a few words to a class of 

 workers who are " more plague than profit." 



The exuberant enthusiasm of some would-be pioneers in the 

 question of human antiquity results occasionally in supposed 

 "discoveries'' having an amusing side; and not unfrequently 

 some of the pioneers, though utter strangers, are so good as to 

 send me descriptions of their " finds," and of their views re- 

 specting them. The following case may be taken as a sample : — 

 In 188 1, a gentleman, of whom I had never heard, wrote, 

 stating that he was one of thuse who felt deeply interested in 

 the antiquity of man, and that he had read all the books he 

 could command on the subject. He was aware that it had been 

 said by one palaeontologist to be " unreasonable to suppose that 

 man had lived during the Eocene and Miocene periods," but he 

 had an indistinct recollection that another eminent man had 

 somewhere said that "man had probably existed in England 

 during a tropical Carboniferous flora and fauna." He then went 

 on to say, " I have got that which I cannot but look upon as a 

 fossil human skull. I have endeavoured to examine it from 

 every conceivable standpoint, and it seems to stand the test. 

 The angles seem perfect, the contour the same but smaller in 

 size than the average human head ; but that, in my opinion, is 

 only what should be expected if we assume that man lived during 

 the Carhoniferous period, in spite of what Herodotus says about 

 the body of Orestes." Finally, he requested to be allowed to 

 send me the specimen. On its arrival it proved, of course, to- 

 be merely a stone ; and nothing but a strong "unscientific use 

 of the imagination " could lead any one to believe that it had 

 ever been a skull, human or infrahuman. 



It may be added that a few years ago a gentleman brought me 

 what he called, and believed to be, " three human skulls and as 

 many elephants' teeth," found from time to time, during his 

 researches in a limestone quarry. They proved to be nothing 

 more than six oddly shaped lumps of Devonian limestone. 



So far as Britain is concerned, cave-hunting is a science of 

 Devonshire birth. The limestone caverns of Oreston, near 

 Plymouth, were examined with some care in the interests of 

 palaeontology as early as 1816, and subsequently as they were 

 successively discovered. The two most famous caverns of the 

 same county — one on the northern, the other on the southern 

 shore of Torbay — have been anthropological as well as palaeon- 

 tologies! studies ; and, as we have seen, have had the lion's share 

 in enlarging our estimate of human antiquity. The researches 

 have, no doubt, absorbed a great amount of time and of labour, 

 and demanded the exercise of much care and patience ; but they 

 have been replete with interest of a h'gh order, w hich would be 

 greatly enhanced if I cnuld feel sure that your time has not been 

 wasted nor your patience exhausted in listening to this address 

 respecting them. 



JOSEPH-ANTOINE-FERDINAND PLA TEA U. 



THE career of this indefatigable investigator, as we 

 announced last week, has just closed. Born in 

 the second year of the present century, he has occu- 

 pied a notable position in the scientific world for more 

 than fifty years. Before he reached middle age he 

 met with the terrible misfortune of losing his eye- 

 sight while trying venturesome experiments on the physi- 

 ological effects of light. His scientific career seems to 

 have become only more active in consequence ! When 

 we think of the ease and success with which certain chess- 

 players can, blind-fold, carry on some dozen or two 

 simultaneous games, there seems little to surprise us in 

 the mathematical career of Euler after he became blind. 

 But the difficulties which stood in the way of the physicist, 

 and which he successfully overcame, were of a far more 

 formidable character. Had his chief investigations 

 related to sound, the loss of eyesight might have but little 

 interfered with them. But to carry out by the help of 

 others' eyes a long series of investigations connected with 

 Physiological Optics was a triumphal feat with which we 

 know nothing to compare, except, perhaps, the composition 

 of those marvellous master-works which Beethoven 

 elaborated after he had become stone deaf. 



Plateau's really great contributions to physical science 

 were, however, not optical, but molecular. They were 

 collectively republished in 1873 in two volumes, with the 

 title, Statiqae expirimentale el thcorique des Liguides 

 SOU mis aux scales Forces molectilaires. This work was 



