560 REPORT—1883. 
2nd. That the Men who made the Paleolithic nodule-tools found in the oldest 
known deposit in Kent's Cavern, arrived during the previous great submergence, or, 
what is more probable—indeed, what alone seems possible unless they were navi- 
gators—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 cannot be necessary to add that while the discovery of remains of Hyzena 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 of 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; but through the researches and discoveries of 
others in comparatively distant parts of our island, and especially in East Anglia, 
the belief in British Pre-glacial Man appears to have risen above the stage of 
ridicule, and to have a decided prospect of general scientific acceptance at no 
distant time. 
I 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 respecting them. The 
following case may be taken asa sample. In 1881, a gentleman, of whom I had 
never heard, wrote, stating that he was one of those 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 paleontologist 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 some- 
where said that ‘Man had probably existed in England during a tropical Carbon- 
iferous 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 Carboniferous 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 anyone 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 Paleontology 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 Anthro- 
pological as well as Paleontological 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 
1 P.S. The announcement, in the Geological Magazine for October 1883, pp. 
433-5, of the recent discovery of remains of the Cave Hyena in the Forest Bed, 
renders it necessary to reconsider the bearing of the Kent’s Cavern facts on the 
question of Pre-glacial Man in Devonshire.—W. P. 
