ON FLINT AND CHERT IMPLEMENTS FROM KENt's CAVERN, 213 



deposit which, when the two were found in the same vertical section, in- 

 variably underlay the Cave-earth. In fact, the Breccia in which every one 

 of the tools was found actually had Cave-earth vertically above it. 



That the chronological interval which separated the era of the older ruder 

 tools from that of the others was a great one is indicated by several facts : — 

 1st. The conditions under which the two accumulations were deposited 

 on the same area were so dissimilar, that the older mass consisted of sub- 

 angiilar and rounded pieces of grit imbedded in a sandy paste produced by 

 the attrition and disintegration of the same materials, whilst the less ancient 

 deposit was formed of angular fragments of limestone incorporated in iine 

 clay. 



2nd. The two deposits were separated by a sheet of crystalline Stalagmite, 

 in some places almost 12 feet thick. 



3rd. After the Breccia had been sealed up with the Stalagmite just men- 

 tioned, the latter was, in extensive parts of the cavern, broken up by some 

 Jiatural agency, and much of the Breccia was dislodged, before the first instal- 

 ment of Cave-earth was introduced. 



4th. The faunas of the two periods were also dissimilar: that of the Breccia 

 did not include the hysena, which played so important a part in the 

 cavern-history during the Cave-earth period, and whose agency, next to that 

 of man, has made cavern-searching an important branch of science. His 

 absence in the one fauna and his presence in the other, may probably be 

 safely taken as indicating that after, but not during, the period of the 

 Breccia, Britain was connected with the continent, and thus rendered it 

 possible for him to roach this country. In other words, the earliest human 

 Devonians at present known to us saw this country an island as at present ; 

 bixt it had become part of continental Europe before the arrival of the Cavern- 

 hyaena amongst their descendants. 



Without attempting to estimate the amount of time represented by the 

 less ancient Cavern deposits (the Black Mould, the Granular Stalagmite, and 

 the Cave-earth), it seems impossible to doubt that the period indicated by 

 the formation of the Breccia and the Crystalline Stalagmite, and the 

 destruction and dislodgment of much of them, must be at least as great. 

 In other words, and speaking only for myself, however far back in time 

 the fabricators of the Cave-earth tools take their stand, I cannot hesitate to 

 place those of the implements of the Breccia as much further back. Most 

 of us remember, and perhaps few of us can be surprised at, the alarm occa- 

 sioned by the antiquity of man made known by the researches in Brixham 

 Cavern in 1858 ; and now I cannot doubt that cavern-researches growing out 

 of those just mentioned make a reasonable and irresistible demand to have 

 that antiquity at least doubled. 



What may be the relation of the Cave-men whose eleven tools are now 

 before us to preglacial times, I will not presume to say ; but I cannot divest 

 myself of the idea that a complete exploration of Kent's Hole is calculated 

 to give a definite reply to that question. 



Meanwhile it may not be without interest to remark that, up to the pre- 

 sent time, as the Cavern exhibits to us more and more ancient men, it shows 

 us that they were ruder and nider as we proceed into antiquity. The men 

 of the Black Mould had a great variety of bone instruments ; they used 

 spindle-whorls, and made pottery, and smelted and compounded metals. 

 The older men of the Cave-earth made a few bone tools ; they used needles, 

 and probably stitched skins together ; but they bad neither spindle-whorls, 

 nor pottery, nor metals ; their most powerful weapons were made of flint 



