AND HIS COTEMPORARIES. 593 



labelled and set apart, and a diary of the work kept. Ex- 

 cellent data of the most trustworthy character were thus 

 obtained. When sufficient progress had been made, Pro- 

 fessor Ramsay, now President of the Geological Society, and 

 myself proceeded early in September 1858, to examine and 

 report on the cave. The fossil remains were identified by 

 me, and the flint flake-implements determined on the spot 

 by reference to the outline figures of Abbeville specimens in 

 M. Boucher de Perthes' ' Antiquites Celtiques ; ' Professor 

 Pamsay made a rough sketch plan ; Mr. Pengelly supplied 

 all the data of the workings ; and a joint report was drawn 

 up on September 9, in which it was stated that human in- 

 dustrial remains occurred in the Brixham Cave, indiscrimi- 

 nately mixed with remains of Rhinoceros, Hycerta, and other 

 extinct forms, in the undisturbed ochreous Cave-earth ; and 

 that we failed to discover that they had been introduced 

 into the cavern by different agencies, or that they were of a 

 different age. That report was submitted to the London 

 Committee, and adopted on September 9, 1858. It was then 

 forwarded to the Eoyal Society, which upon the strength of 

 it gave another grant of 1001. to prosecute the exploration. 

 From that period dates the wane of scepticism among 

 scientific men in England, respecting the geological evidence 

 of the antiquity of man as a cotemporary of the external 

 fauna of the Post-Glacial period. The humble share which I 

 claim to have had in the case is, that the exploration of the 

 Brixham Cave was led up to by the general cave inquiry 

 above referred to ; that the existence of the cave was brought 

 to the knowledge of men of science by me ; that its explo- 

 ration for a specific object was taken up at my suggestion, 

 and carried out on the plan laid down by me, with my 

 constant co-operation or advice throughout as the final re- 

 feree ; that the fossil remains and other objects discovered in 

 it were identified or determined by me ; and that the report 

 in which the important conclusions were announced was 

 drawn up on those determinations. 1 The only other point 

 requiring notice is, that while the excavations were in pro- 

 gress, Mr. Bristow, E.R.S., was deputed from the staff of the 

 Geological Survey, on the requisition of the London Com- 

 mittee, to make a careful plan of the cavern, which he ac- 

 companied with a descriptive report, and Mr. Prestwich was 

 requested to look into some of the general physical phe- 

 nomena. 



1 Professor Phillips, then President 

 of the Geolog eal Society, Professor 

 Eamsay, now President, Mr. Prestwich, 

 Mr. Pengelly, and Dr.John Percy, F.E.S., 



all members of the committee, can con- 

 firm the statement ; as do also the 

 dociiments in the records of the Geo- 

 logical Society. 



VOL. II. Q Q 



