584 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1916. 



which Darwin's theory (promulgated in 1859) made in the conception of the 

 order and inter-relation of life-forms was scarcely more momentous than that 

 wrought by the discoveries of various geologists, to which William Pengelly 

 himself contributed through his work at Brixham Cave and Kent's Hole, since 

 the old beliefs concerning man gradually gave way before the proofs of his slow 

 advance from savagery to civilisation. The exploration soon rewarded the 

 geologist by yielding many remarkable specimens, and in the reports rendered 

 at Birmingham in 1865, and at Nottingham in 1866, he described the various 

 objects met with, which included implements of human origin, together with 

 remains of mammoth, cave-bear, and their extinct contemporaries. 



In the report for the year 1867 (the third) which he read at the meeting 

 at Dundee, my father mentioned the human jaw in which so much interest 

 has recently been taken by Dr. Duckworth. This was found deeply embedded 

 in granidar stalagmite, and was described in the following manner : — 



' The human remains are a tooth and a portion of an upper jaw containing 

 four teeth. They were found lying together in the vestibule about thirty feet 

 from the northern entrance of the cavern, and deeply embedded in the' floor, 

 which was twenty inches thick. These interesting relics — the most ancient 

 remains of man's osseous system which the cavern has yet yielded — were fourid 

 on the 3rd of January 1867.' 



' There is reason to believe that a few persons continue to be sceptical 

 respecting the artificial character of even the best unpolished flint implements 

 found in the cavern or elsewhere. The Committee venture to entertain the 

 opinion that the evidence which the last twelve months have put into their 

 possession renders it impossible for anyone to doubt that man occupied Devon- 

 shire when it was also the home of the now extinct lion, hyaena, rhinoceros, 

 mammoth, and their contemporaries.' 



' Of the tools, two . . . the bone awl and the harpoon [were] found in the 

 black band, beneath the stalagmitic floor in the vestibule. ... In this same 

 thin band there occurred, with the implements just mentioned, teeth of rhinoceros, 

 hytena, and other of the common cave mammals ; and the story they tell is at 

 once clear and resistless. These, however, are neither the only nor the best 

 bone implements which have been exhumed. Two others have been met with, 

 and both of them in the red cave-earth below the black band. One is a portion 

 of a highly-finished harpoon two and a quai'ter inches in length, and differing 

 from that previously mentioned in the form of its point, and being barbed on 

 two sides. . . . This implement was met with in the vestibule, in the second 

 foot-level of red cave-earth. Vertically above these two feet of loam there lay 

 the black band about three inches thick, and containing flint flakes and remains 

 of extinct animals. Over this again came the stalagmitic floor eighteen inches 

 thick, granular towards its base, crystalline and laminated towards the upper 

 surface, continuous in all directions, unquestionably intact, and without fracture 

 or crevice of any kind, and superposed on this was the ordinary black mould, 

 with Romano-British potsherds. . . . The second bone tool from the cave-earth 

 is a well-finished pin three and a quarter inches in length.' A bone needle, 

 partially covered with stalagmite, was also found during the year's exploration. 



Professor Boyd Dawkirbs and Mr. Ayshford Sandford visited Torquay in 

 the autumn of 1868 for the purpose of inspecting and assisting in the classifi- 

 cation of the bones foimd in the cavern. 



According to his invariable custom, the explorer attended the British Asso- 

 ciation which met at Exeter in 1869, and, the city being near Torquay, many 

 of the geologists present took the opportunity of visiting the cave under his 

 guidance, and discussing the various problems suggested by the deposits. At 

 the gatherings of the Association at Liverpool in 1870, and at Edinburgh in the 

 following year, the discoveries made at Kent's Hole excited exceptional interest 

 and attention, especially in the northern capital. 



My father announced an important ' find ' in the following words at the 

 close of his annual report (read before the Geological Section at Brighton) : ' The 

 other specimen is a well-marked incisor of Machairodus latidens, found July 29, 

 1872. One of the hopes of the Cavern Committee, in commencing "their 

 researches, was that they might find some traces of Machairodus. This they 

 have never abandoned, though year after year passed away without success, 

 and they cannot but express their gratitude to the body whose patience and 



