202 Man and the Pleistocene Mammals of Great Britain. 



These three localities are the only places in Britain where im- 

 plements of man have been found associated with the extinct 

 mammalia in post-glacial river deposits. 



We come now to the evidence afforded by the caverns, 

 which proves how essentially man formed one of the gronp of 

 mammals existing in post-glacial times. In 1832, the Rev. 

 Mr. McEnery began his excavation of Kent's Hole, near 

 Torquay /^Devonshire, and discovered numerous flakes of flint 

 and spear-heads of the small flattened type found in the cave 

 of Moustier. There were also roughly-chipped thin oval frag- 

 ments of flints, of the type commonly called sling-stones. 

 They were underneath the stalagmite, and associated with the 

 remains of the following animals : — the cave lion, the sabre- 

 toothed lion, the cave hyaena, wolf, fox, ermine, badger, cave 

 bear, brown, bear, otter, urus, Irish elk, stag, reindeer, mam- 

 moth, wild boar, Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, 

 tailless hare, water-rat, Arvicota pratensis, Arvicota agrestis, 

 hare, and rabbit. The occurrence of the great sabre-toothed 

 lion in this deposit is so remarkable, that Dr. Falconer could 

 not bring himself to believe that this Pliocene animal had 

 really been found in the cavern, and he supposed it to have 

 been mixed up, by some accident, with the remains from Kent's 

 Hole, in Mr. McEnery's collection. That, however, the three 

 canines upon which the determination of this mammal has been 

 made were actually found in Kent's Hole, is proved by 

 McEnery's manuscript, as well as by the condition of their 

 matrix. He describes them, with other animals, from a portion 

 of the cavern that he calls the Wolf's Passage, found under- 

 neath the stalagmite, with thousands of teeth of hyasna, horse, 

 and rodents. Unfortunately, the account of the exploration of 

 this cavern was not published until 1859,* and consequently 

 the idea of the presence of the works of man with the remains 

 of Pleistocene mammals, under circumstances which would 

 prove that he lived in Pleistocene times, was not brought home 

 to the minds of English savants until nearly thirty years after 

 the discovery. In 18-i0,t however, Mr. Goodwin Austin put 

 on record that he had obtained from the same cavern the works 

 of man from undisturbed earth under stalagmite, mingled with 

 the remains of extinct mammals. Public attention was not 

 directed to the occurrence of flint implements in caverns until 

 1858, when the Royal Society, stimulated by the fruits of the 



* " Cavern ^Researches," by the Rev. J. MncEnery, edit. E. Vivian, 8vo, 1859, 

 p. 32 : — "To enumerate the amount of fossils collected from this spot (Wolfe 

 Passage) would be to give the inventory of hulf my collection, comprising all the 

 genera and t luir species, including cultridens (Machairodue). The jawa of the 

 elk, horse, and hyena were taken out whole, rhe teeth of the two laet were 

 gathered in thousands, and in the midst of nil were myriads of Rodentia." 

 t "' Trans. Geol. Sue," Ber. 11., vul. vi., p. 433. 



