ON Kent's cavern, Devonshire. 201 



beautifully ■white and fresh, and it is rarely possible to detect any evidence 

 of wear on them. This latter fact was noticed by Mr. M'Enery when 

 speaking of the Bears' molars found in a similar deposit in the adjacent 

 Bears' JDen ; and was supposed bj- him to " intimate that the Bears of those 

 days ■were less exclusively fi'ugivorous than the modern species, and lived 

 partly on flesh " *. 



In their Fourth Report, the Committee, speaking of the deposit under the 

 Old crystalline Stalagmite, remarked, " Up to this time the Eock-like Breccia 

 has been utterly silent on the question of the existence of Man ; it has given 

 up no tools or chips of flint or bone, no charred wood or bones, no bones 

 sfilit longitudinally, no stones suggesting that they had been used as ham- 

 mers or crushers. But whilst they have before them the lessons so empha- 

 tically taught by their exploration of the Cavern, the Committee cannot but 

 think that it would be premature to draw at present any inference from this 

 negative fact " f. 



The cautiousness inculcated in this passage received its justification on 

 March 5, 18GU, when a flint flake (No. 31)91) was discovered in the Breccia 

 in question in the Water Gallery. The particulars of this discovery were 

 forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, Chairman of the Committee, by the Sujwr- 

 intendents, in the following passage in their Monthly lleport, dated April 8, 

 18G9 : — " It was found with portions of the teeth of the Cave-bear, lying 

 on a loose block of Hmestone, in contact with the north wall of the Gallery, 

 in the third foot-level ; that is, from 2 to 3 feet below the surface of the 

 Breccia. A section at right angles to its longest axis would be a scalene 

 triangle. The face of the flake represented by the smallest side is the 

 natural surface of the flint nodule from which the specimen was struck. 

 It required no more than three or, at most, four blows to produce it. On its 

 larger face the bulb of percussion is well pronounced. It is partially coated 

 with a thin ferruginous film, occasionally dendi'itic, and resembhng that 



which commonly coats the pebbles found in the Breccia. Beneath 



this partial envelope it is of a light buff-colour. Its aspect is unlike that of 

 any implements or flakes found in the Cave-earth. None of its edges can 

 be said to be keen, yet it does not appear to have been roUed. One weU- 

 rollcd small flint pebble occurred in the Breccia in the Gallery. 



"Though the flake cannot be regarded as a,Jlne specimen, we think there 

 is little or no doubt that it was formed by human agency, and assuming 

 this to be the case, it appears to us to be of very great value, as it 

 was found in a deposit not only older than the ordinary implement-bearing 

 Cave-earth, but separated from it by the Old Floor, which in some cases was 

 upwards of 12 feet thick, and which is certainly of great thickness imme- 

 diately above the spot where the flake lay. In fact, it was found in a 

 deposit which, so far as the Cave evidence goes, was laid down before the 

 introduction of that in which were entombed the first traces of the Cave- 

 hysena, Cave-lion, Mammoth, and their contemporaries. 



" Being impressed with the probably great importance of the discovery, we 

 carefully addressed ourselves to the question, ' Did the flake originally belong 

 to the comparatively modern Cave-earth in the Lake above and find its way 

 through some crevice in the Old Floor which forms the ceiling of the Gallery? ' 

 To this important question we arc prepared to give a negative reply ; for — 



"1st. No crevice or hole of any land is discoverable in either the upper or 

 lower surface of the ceihng or Old Floor. 



* See Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. iii. p. 3G6 (1869). 

 t Brit. Assoc. Eeport, 1868, p. 54. 



