462 Bone Caves. 



another, that the angles of the caverns themselves are 

 occasionally smooth, having been polished by the animals 

 rubbing against the rock, as they passed by corners and 

 along other uneven surfaces on their way into and out 

 of their dens. 



I repeat that there is no doubt that many of these 

 caves date from before the Glacial epoch, and therefore 

 that the bones of animals must have found their way 

 into some of them before that period, ' while yet our 

 England was a wolfish den ' ; and since the glaciers 

 died away many of the caves have been more or less 

 tenanted down to the present day, or bones have been 

 at intervals washed into them ; and thus it happens, 

 that organic remains of older date than the Glacial 

 epoch may be found in the same cave with bones 

 belonging to that period, and to minor epochs that 

 come down to historical times, and even to our own 

 day. 



Mingled with the bones of extinct and modern 

 species in England and Wales, flint implements, and 

 other works of man, have been found ; and though it 

 has often been said that these are of later date than 

 the remains of extinct species sometimes found in 

 the glacial deposits, it has not only not been proved 

 that this is the case, but in my opinion, and in that of 

 many competent judges, the very opposite view has 

 been reduced to a demonstration. Some of the Devon- 

 shire caves in which works of man were found, having 

 apparently been above the sea during the whole of the 

 Glacial epoch men frequented them. Others farther 

 north, like that of Cefn in North Wales, were below 

 the sea during part of the Glacial epoch, for the boulder- 

 beds reach a higher level; and, with Dr. Falconer, I 

 found fragments of marine shells of the drift in the 



