116 A. JR. Hunt — Kent's Cavern and Buckland. 



are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of 

 beasts."^ This evidence is absolutely irreconcilable. 



It is no object of mine to prove Buckland right or wrong, but 

 I would ask any unprejudiced reader whether on the above evidence, 

 and especially taking into account the momentous fact of 2^ feet 

 of stalagmite covering a skull in a cave of the present coastline — 

 whether it would be worthy of a cautious scientist to accept such 

 evidence as that of the caves of Burrington, Wookey Hole, Paviland, 

 or Liege, as proof of the contemporaneity of man with the extinct 

 animals. As any stick is good enough to beat a dog, so any myth 

 seems sufficient to depreciate Buckland. 



In the September number of the Geological Magazine, Professor 

 Eupert Jones writes : " The Eev. McEnery's reports on Kents 

 Cavern were finished about 1826 . . . whilst McEnery's 

 paper was supposed to be ' lost,' but really kept in the background 

 by influence of the Eev. Dean Buckland. . . ." The fact is 

 the Eev. J. McEnery never wrote a paper, nor reports. What he 

 did write, viz. rough notes, were not finished in 1826 ; nor did 

 Dean Buckland influence McEnery's decisions except by legitimate 

 argument, which happened in McEnery's case to convince. McEnery's 

 manuscripts were so truly lost that they were sold at auction with 

 old sermons, and only recovered years later in a fragmentary 

 condition. Parts are therefore still lost, a lamentable fact, beyond 

 supposition. 



The following are McEnery's own words : — 



" On the 14th August, 1829, visited the cave accompanied by Master 

 Aliffe." (Trans. Dev. Assoc, vol. iii, p. 295.) 



" Vid. Buckland's resume in reference to the discovery of human bones 

 in Diluvium in Bridgewater Treatise. I cannot sum up better than with 

 his remarks." (Trans. Dev. Assoc, vol. iii, p. 225.) 



Then as to the cause of delay in publication of his works : — 



" Had I not devoted so long a period to personal examination of all the 

 circumstances attending this delicate question, in common with others 

 I should have fallen into the error of supposing human remains to be 

 contemporaneous because conjoined with the deposit of mud and bones. 

 Into this opinion I fell at first from the discovery of flint blades in contact 

 with both in several parts of the cavern and the alternation of the 

 stalagmite, and I communicated my impressions to Dr. Buckland with 

 all the earnestness of sincere conviction. It was to this doubt chiefly 

 is owing the original delay in the publication of my labours. It is only 

 from extended observation over the entire field of the cavern that I have 

 come to the conclusion that human bones are long posterior to the 

 sediment containing pebbles and bones, and that they date no more than 

 half-way down from that period. 



" If ever a temptation offered for passing the human skeleton for a Homo 

 diluvii testis it is here, when accompanied by his weapons he is found 

 mixed uj) in the Diluvium with the bones of elephant, etc. ; but a regard to 

 truth compels us to declare that all the attendant circumstances concur 

 to the conclusion that his bones were deposited here by human hands 

 to a period long posterior to the introduction of even the muddy sediment 

 found in the cavern." (Trans. Dev. Assoc, vol. iii, p. 226.) 



1 Bridgewater Treatise, Buckland, vol. i, p. 598. 



