562 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 38. 



IIIE DEVONSHIRE CAVERNS, AND 

 THEIR CUNTENTS.'^ 



Anthkopologt, on one of its numerous sides, 

 marches with geology; and hence it is, no doubt, 

 that I, for many years a laborer very near this some- 

 what ill-defined border, have been invited lo assist 

 my friends and neighbors in the work which lies 

 before them during the association week. I have 

 the more cheerfully accepted the invitation, fronr a 

 vivid recollection, that, when on a few occasions I 

 have come uninvited into this department, my recep- 

 tion has been so very cordial as to lead nie to ask 

 myself whether the reports which for many years 

 (1S64 to 1880) I laid annually before my geological 

 brethren did not derive their chief interest from their 

 anthropological bearings and teachings. 



In 1858, a quarter of a century ago, 1 had the pleas- 

 ure of reading to the geological section of the 

 association the first public communication on the 

 exploration, then in progress, of Brixham Cavern 

 (more correctly, Brixham Windmill-hill Cavern); and 

 as any interest connected willi that paper lay en- 

 tirely in the evidence it contained of the inoscula- 

 tion and contemporaneity of human industrial relics 

 of a rude character, with remains of certain extinct 

 mammals, I purpose on this occasion to lay before 

 the department a few thoughts, retrospective and pro- 

 spective, whicli may be said to radiate from that ex- 

 ploration, confining myself mainly to South Devon. 



Probably nothing will better show the apparent 

 3pathy and scepticism with whicli, up to 1858, all 

 geological evidence of the antiquity of man was 

 received by British geologists generally, than the 

 following statement of facts: — 



About the beginning of the second quarter of the 

 present century, the late Kev. J. MacEnery made 

 Kent's Cavern, or Kent's Hole, near Torquay, famous 

 by his researches and discoveries there. He not only 

 found flint implemen^s beneath a thick continuous 

 sheet of stalagmite, but, after a* most careful and 

 painstaking investigation in the presence of witnesses, 

 arrived at the conclusion that the flints " were depos- 

 ited in their deej) position before the creation of the 

 stalagmite " ('Trans. Devon, assoc, iii. 330) ; and when 

 it was suggested by the liev. Dr. Buckland, to whom he 

 at once and without reservation communicated all his 

 discoveries, that " the ancient Britons had scooped 

 out ovens in the stalagmite, and that through them 

 the knives got admission to the 'diluvium,' " he re- 

 plied, " I am bold to say that in no instance have I dis- 

 covered evidence of breaches or ovens in the floor, but 

 one continuous plate of stalagmite diffused uniformly 

 over the loam" [Ibid., p. 334). He added, "It is 

 painful to dissent from so high an authority, and 

 more particularly so from my concurrence generally 

 n his views of the phenomena of these caves, which 

 three years' personal observation has in almost every 

 instance enabled me to verify" [Ibid., p. 338). 



It is perhaps not surprising that Dr. Buckland, 



> Addreesby WiLI-IAM Pkngelly, F.R.S.,F.G.S., vice-presi- 

 dent of tlie section of anthropology of tbe British iisaocialiou 

 for tbe udvancenieut of science. From Nature. 



one of the leading geologists of his day, should be 

 too tenacious of his opinion, and feel too secure in 

 his position to yield to the statements and arguments 

 of his comparatively young friend, MacEnery, tlien 

 scarcely known to the scientific world. 



That the position taken by Buckland retarded tlie 

 progress of truth, and was calculated lo check the 

 ardor of research, is apparently certain, and much 

 to be regretted. But it should be remembered, that, 

 at least as early as 1819, he taught that "the two 

 great points ... of the low antiquity of the human 

 race, and the universality of a recent deluge, are most 

 satisfactorily confirmed by every thing that has yet 

 been brought to light by geological investigations " 

 (Vindiciae geologicae, p. ^4); that early in 1822 he 

 reiterated and emphasized these opinions in his fa- 

 mous Kirkdale paper [Plill. trans, for 1822, pp. 171- 

 236), which the Royal society 'crowned with the 

 Copley medal' (Q,uart. journ. tjcol. soc, vol. xiii. 

 p. xxxiil.); that in 1823, having amplified and revised 

 this paper, he published it as an independent quarto 

 volume under the attractive title of ' Reliquiae 

 diUivianae,' of which he issued a second edition in 

 1S24; and that though his acquaintance with Kent's 

 Cavern was much less intimate than that of Jlac- 

 Enery, he nevertheless was, of the two, the earlier 

 worker there, and, in fact, had discovered a flint im- 

 plement in it before MacEnery had ever seen that or 

 any other cavern, — the first tool of the kind found 

 in any cavern, it is believed, and which in all prob- 

 ability was met willi under circumstances not in con- 

 flict with his published opinion on the low antiquity 

 of man. I confess that under such circiunstances, 

 human nature being what it is, the line followed by 

 Dr. Buckland seems to me to have been that which 

 most men would have pursued. 



It was, at any rate, the line to which he adhered 

 as late, at least, as 183"; for in his well-known 

 ' Bridgewater treatise,' published that year, after de- 

 scribing his visit to the caverns near Li^ge, famous 

 through the discoveries of Dr. Schmerling, he said, 

 "The human bones found in these caverns are in a 

 state of less decay than tliose of the extinct species 

 of beasts: they are accompanied by rude flint knives, 

 and other instruments of flint and bone, and are 

 probably derived from uncivilized tribes that in- 

 habited the caves. Some of the human bones may 

 also be the remains of individuals, who, in more re- 

 cent times, have been buried in such convenient 

 repositories. M. Schmerling . . . expresses his opin- 

 ion that these human bones are coeval with those of 

 the quadrupeds of extinct species, found with them, 

 — an opinion from which the author, after a careful 

 examination of M. Schmerling's collection, entirely 

 dissents" [Op. cit, i. 602). 



It may be doubted, however, whether his faith in 

 these his early convictions remained unshaken to 

 the end. I have frequently been told by one of his 

 contemporary professors at Oxford, who knew him 

 Intimately, that Buckland shrank from the task of 

 preparing for the press new editions of his ' Reliquiae 

 diluvianae ' and his ' Bridgewater treatise.' ' The 

 work,' he said, ' would be, not editing, but re- writing.' 



