16 



D. PID&EOX OX EECEXT DISCOYEEIES 



the bronze period in Europe. Sir John Lubbock has, indeed, ad- 

 vanced reasons for believing that the Phoenicians traded with Britain 

 for tin fully 1500 years before our era ; and, if this be so, we must 

 suppose that the inhabitants of Belerium had been acquainted with 

 the art of > smelting for very many years before that date, there 

 being nothing to suggest that the Britons were taught metallurgj^ 

 by the Phoenicians. That the present coast-levels of England have 

 persisted for at least two thousand years past seems to be fairly 

 established; and, this being so, it follows that the subsidence, if 

 subsidence it were, that placed the primitive smelting-works lying 

 under EedcliiFe Towers beneath the tidal waters of Torbay, must have 

 occurred at some period prior to the Eoman occupation, or during the 

 .12, 15, or more centuries which, according to Dr. Evans, M. Morlot, 

 or Sir John Lubbock, elapsed between the beginning of the bronze 

 age in Britain and the coming of Julius Caesar to our shores. 



This question may be left for a moment in order to inquire how 

 far a comparison of the objects found in the clay with other early 

 works of human art supports the conclusion that the soils of the 

 Torbay forest are of comparatively recent date. It will be observed 

 that the fragments of pottery are similar in character to both British 

 and Swiss lake-dwelling pottery, of which the former may be of any 

 age from 1500 to 3000 years. The copper ingots have their exact 

 counterparts in others now in the Natural-History Museum which 

 were found in the black mould, or uppermost layer of Kent's Cavern ; 

 while whetstones and querns, similar to those taken from the clay, 

 are not uncommon in Eomano-British finds. Grranting that the 

 flint implement found by Mr. Watson, lying on Torre-Abbey sands, 

 is a true foresi>fossil, this in no way militates against the conclusion 

 which is sought to be established. J^ot only have such tools been 

 found associated with bronze implements in the Swiss lake-dweUings 

 and elsewhere, but there is evidence of such association on the table 

 this evening. The horn implement found by Mr. Ardley in the peat 

 of the Torbay forest supports the ideas which have been advanced ; 

 for no one examining this tool with a critical eye can avoid coming 

 to the conclusion that it has been shaped with something very much 

 more effective for cutting- purposes than a stone hatchet. 



It is well known that the Torbay forest is of later date than the 

 cave-earth of the neighbouring Kent's Cavern, and later than some 

 portions, at least, of its stalagmitic covering ; for both these deposits 

 contain the bones of certain extinct mammals whose remains are 

 not found in the forest. The fauna of the latter is, indeed, the 

 fauna of to-day, consisting for the most part of the red deer, the 

 ox, hog, sheep, and goat, creatures whose bones are also found in 

 the black mould of Kent's Cavern. There is some evidence, it is 

 true, that the mammoth roamed in Torbay during the forest-era ; 

 but it is not conclusive, and it will be time to believe that Eleiolias 

 primigenius was a contemporary of bronze-making man in Devon- 

 shire when its remains have been found in actual association with 

 the works of the latter. This subject will be again referred to in 

 the. sequel ; it is needful now to pass on to the description of 



