Notes and Comments. 527 



search of Aurignacian relics, how they searched until at last 

 only one cave remained to be investigated — the well-known 

 and easily accessible Bacon's Hole, a few miles west of the 

 Mumbles. 



PREHISTORIC PAINTINGS ON CAVE WALLS. 



The Times proceeded ; ' On entering this, one of the 

 investigators cried, " Les voila! " and the other " There they 

 are." On the right-hand wall at about the level of the eyes 

 may be seen— not a picture — but a number (ten) of horizontal 

 bands, vivid red, arranged in a vertical series, about one yard 

 in height.' On the following day the Times was moved to 

 speculate, in a weighty and quite authoritative leading article, on 

 the discovery, pardonably proud, of course, of its exclusive news 

 scoop. ' The finders,' it said, ' are to be congratulated on the 

 fit of enthusiasm which prompted their search. The discovery 

 is a triumph for the " a priori " method of investigation.' 

 ' When,' it was demanded, ' did the Aurignacian man, who 

 smeared his red ochre on the walls of Bacon's Hole, live ? ' 

 So much for the discovery with which the whole archaeological 

 world has been set agog. 



experts' PICKWICKIAN TRIUMPH. 



Now for the answer to the question. The ' prehistoric 

 man ' fondly conceived by the French experts lived not 18,000 

 years back — as Professor Sollas has estimated — but eighteen 

 years. The Cambria Daily Leader explains how he came to 

 smear his red ochre on the walls of Bacon's Hole. Eighteen 

 years ago a Norwegian barque was driven ashore in the vicinity 

 of Bacon's Hole, and a local boatman found among the wreck- 

 age a brush which had been used on the vessel for laying on a 

 reddish paint. ' Too good to throw away,' the boatman 

 remarked, and with the intention of rubbing the paint out 

 of the brush, he forthwith proceeded to the side of the cave for 

 the purpose. He left behind on the wall ' ten horizontal 

 bands, vivid red, arranged in a vertical series.' Quite Pick- 

 wickian ! 



The extensive collection of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire 

 ■diatoms, made by the late R. H. Philip, of Hull, also the specimens which 

 have been figured and described in the well-known work by Mills and 

 Philip, together with his microscope, a fine collection of microscopical 

 slides (including several made by Robt. Harrison, a former Hull micro- 

 scopist), and his scientific books, have been presented by Mrs. Philip 

 and family to the Hull Museum. The collection of slides contains over 

 3,000 specimens, and among the books are such important works as " Dia- 

 tomees Marines de France," by MM. H. et M. Peragallo ; " A Treatise 

 on the Diatomaceae," by Van Heurck ; " Diatomaceae Germaniae," by 

 H. Von Schonfeldt ; " British Desmidiaceae," by W. West, and numerous 

 other volumes dealing with microscopy. 



1912 Nov. I. 



