A. R. Sunt — Kent's Cavern and Buckland. 115 



Among my notes collected during the exploration of the Borness 

 Cave are the following extracted from the Proc. Soc. Ant., vol. iv, 

 p. Ill:— 



" Dowkerbottom Cave is on the high ground between Arncliffe and 

 Kilnsay. . . . One of the coins found was under six inches of 

 stalagmite. At this point the stalagmite was between five and six feet 

 in thickness ; it was in layers, occasionally very hard, and then quite rotten 

 and decayed. Some of the bones were buried deep in the stalagmite. 



. . Three human crania in the cave . . . Goat, Dog, Horse." 



This information is not precise enough for scientific purposes, and 

 we are not even told the age of the coin. But we learn incidentally 

 that the three coins found were of the reigns of Tetricus, a.d. 267-273, 

 and of Claudius Gothicus, whose reign terminated in a.d. 270. 

 These dates harmonized well with the main collection from the 

 Borness Cave, though in my opinion the skull under the four feet 

 of stalagmitic deposit must be much older, though assuredly not 

 Palaeolithic. According to Sir Henry Ho worth's reasoning, we should 

 have to accept both Claudius and Tetricus as Palseolithic men, 

 and coinage as a Palfeolithic art. 



Wookey Hole. Here the teeth and fragments of bone were 

 dispersed through reddish mud and clay, and some of them were 

 united to it by stalagmite into a firm osseous breccia.' Sir Henry 

 observes that as Buckland found a piece of a sepulchral urn among 

 the bones, " this case is a doubtful one." Doubtful ! What could 

 be more certain ? 



Paviland. Sir Henry tells us that in this cave a female skeleton 

 was found beneath six inches of earth, associated with two handfuls 

 of shells of Nerita littoralis ; by which shell Buckland undoubtedly 

 means Littorina littoralis, as he says it is common on the adjacent 

 shore. Sir Henry continues, " We can hardly doubt with our 

 present knowledge that these bones were those of a Palseolithic 

 woman." On the contrary, Sir John Evans considers them those 

 of a Neolithic man.^ 



In the cave were also found, according to Sir Henry, tusks of 

 Mammoth; but, according to Buckland, elephant. The distinction, 

 may be important. 



If the skeleton and the elephant, together with hyeena and bear, 

 were contemporary, England would be continental, and Paviland 

 perhaps a hundred miles from the sea. In this case shells of 

 Littorina littoralis would be somewhat out of place. 



Moreover, we are told that the bones contained a small quantity 

 of a yellow substance like adipocere, which is practically altered 

 marrow. I should be inclined to submit that bones containing 

 marrow associated with Littorina littoralis are as unlikely to be 

 PalEeolithic as any ancient bones could be. 



With regard to the Liege caves, Schmerling (we are told) says 

 that the human bones " agree in colour, in the degree of decomposition, 



andinthe way they occur, with those of the extinct beasts " 



Buckland, however, says, "The human bones found in these caves 



^ Rel. Dil., p. 16S. - Evans' " Ancient Stone Implements," 2nd ed., p. 487. 



