Octoher 'JO, ISSr, 



SCIENCE. 



5()7 



Tlie mode of oxp'nralion was osspntiatly llie same 

 as that followed at Windmill Hill, Rrixham; but as 

 Kent's Cavern, instead of being a series of narrow 

 galleries, contained a considerable number of capa- 

 cious clianibers, and as the aim of the explorers was 

 to ascertain not merely wliat objects llie deposits 

 contained, but their exact position, their distribution, 

 their condition, their collocation, and their relative 

 abundance, the details had to be considerably more 

 elaborate, while tliey remained so perfectly simple 

 that the workmen had not the least difficulty in car- 

 rying them out, under my daily superintendence. 

 The process being fully described in the First annual 

 report by tlie committee (see Report Ilrit. assoc, 

 ISCi"), pp. 1<), 20), it is unnecessary to re]>eat it here. 



Mr. Oodwin-Auslen, while agreeing with ilr. Mac- 

 Eiiery that flint implements occurred under the sta- 

 lagmite, contended that they were found throughout 

 the entire thickness of the cave-earth. MacEner)', 

 on llie other hand, was of opinion that in most cases 

 their situation was intermediate between the bottom 

 of thest.alagmite and the upper surface of the cave- 

 earth ; and while ailmitting that occa>ionally, though 

 rarely, they had been met with somewhat lower, be 

 stated that the greatest depth to which he had been 

 able to trace them was not more than a few inches 

 below the surlace of the cave-earth {Trans. iJetun. 

 axxoc, iii. 32(j, 3"27). The committee soon found 

 Ihemselves in a position to confirm Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen's statement, and to say with him that "no 

 <listinction founded on condition, distribution, or rela- 

 tive position, can be observed whereby the human 

 can be separated from the other reliquiae"' {Trans, 

 yeol. soc, 2d ser. vi. 44-1). 



Mr. M.icEnery's 'Plate F' contains seven figures of 

 three remarkable canine teeth, and the following state- 

 ment respecting them: "Teeth of Ursus cultridens, 

 found in the cave of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, 

 Devon, by Rev. Mr. MacEiiery, January, 182H, in 

 Diluvial Mud mix'd with Teeth and Gnaw'd Bones 

 of Uhinoceros, Klepliant, Horse, Ox, Elk, and Deer, 

 with TiH'th and Bones of Hyaenas, Bears, Wolves, 

 Foxes, etc." 



It is worthy of note, that no other plate in Ihe en- 

 tire seiies names the date on which the specimens 

 were found, or the mammals with whose remains 

 tUey were commingled. This arose probably from 

 the fact, well known to MacEnery, that no such speci- 

 mens had been fouiul elsewliere in Britain; and possi- 

 bly also to empha-size the statements in his text, should 

 any doubt be thrown on his discovery. 



It is, no doubt, unnecessary to say here that the 

 teetii belonged to a large species of carnivore, to 

 which, in 184(>, Professor Owen gave the name of 

 Machajrodns latidens. MacEnery stales that the 

 total number of teeth he found were live upper ca- 

 nines and one incisor, and Ihe six museums in which 

 tiiey are now lodged are well known. 



A considerable amount of scepticism existed for 

 many years in some minds, as to whether the relics 

 just mentioned were really fouiul in Kent's Cavern, 

 it being contended, that, from its zoological affinities, 

 Machairodus latidens must have belonged to an earli- 



er fauna than that represented by the ordinary cavc- 

 manunals; and various hypotheses were invented to 

 explain away the difficulty, most of them, at lea-st, 

 being more ingenious than ingenuous, lie this as it 

 may, it was naturally hoped that the re-exploration 

 of the cavern would set the question at rest forever; 

 and it was not without a feeling of disappointment 

 that I had to write seven successive annual re- 

 ports without being able to announce the discovery 

 of a single relic of Machairodus. Indeed, the great- 

 er part of the eighth report was written, with no 

 better prospect, when, while engaged in washing a 

 'find' met with <m July 29, 1872, 1 found that it 

 consisted of a well-marked incisor of Machairodus 

 lati<lens, with a left ramus of lower jaw of a bear, iu 

 which was one molar tooth. They were lying togeth- 

 er in the first or uppermost foot-level of cave-earth, 

 liaving over it a continuous sheet of granular stalag- 

 mite 2.5 feet thick. There was no longer any doubt 

 of MacEnery's accuracy; no doubt that Machairo- 

 dus latidens was a member of tlie cave-earth fauna, 

 whatever the zoological affinities might s-ay to the 

 contrary; nor was there any doubt that man and 

 Machairodus were contemporaries in Devonshire. 



1 cannot pass from this case without directing at- 

 tention to its bearing on negative evidence. Had the 

 exploration ceased on July 28, 1872, — the day before 

 the discovery, — those who had always declined to be- 

 lieve that Machairodus had ever been found in the 

 cavern wotild have been able to urge, as an additional 

 and apparently conclusive argument, that the con- 

 secutive, systematic, and careful daily labor of seven 

 years and four months had failed to show that their 

 scepticism was unwarranted. Nay, more: liad the 

 incisor been overlooked, — and, being but a small 

 object, this might very easily have occurred, — they 

 might finally have said '15.2.) years' labor;' for, so 

 far as is known, no other relic of the species Was 

 met with during the entire investigation. In all 

 probability, liad either of these by no means im- 

 probable hypotheses occurred, geologists and pale- 

 ontologists generally would have joined the sceptics; 

 MacEnery's reputation would have been held in very 

 light esteem, and, to say the least, his researches re- 

 garded with suspicion. 



Wlien its exploration began, and for some time 

 after, the coniuiittee had no reason to believe or to 

 suspect that the cavern contained any thing older 

 than the cave-earth: but, at the end of five months, 

 facts pointing apparently to earlier deposits began 

 to present themselves; and, at intervals more or less 

 protracted, additional phenomena, requiring appar- 

 ently the same interpretation, were observed and re- 

 corded. But it was not until the end of three full 

 years that a vertical section was cut, showing in un- 

 disturbed and clear succession, not only the cave- 

 earth with the granular stalagmite lying on it, but, 

 under and supporting the cave-earth, another, thick- 

 er and continuous, sheet of stalagmite (appropriate- 

 ly termed crystalline), and below this, again, an older 

 detrital accumulation, known as the breccia, made 

 up of materials utterly unlike those of the cave- 

 carlh. 



