90 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



CHAPTEE VI. 



CAVE-DEPOSITS OF THE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD — Continued. 



Succession of deposits in Kent's Cavern — Conditions during their accumulation — 

 Evidence for prolonged duration of Palaeolithic Period — Hysena-dens in 

 England — Kirkdale Cave and Wookey Hole — Bone-caves never tenanted by 

 man or wild beasts — Victoria Cave, near Settle in Yorkshire — Succession of 

 deposits in that cave — Glacial beds associated with Pleistocene deposits — 

 Bone-caves of Belgium — General succession of deposits in these — Trou du 

 Sureau — Relative position of Neolithic relics. 



Eeference has already been made to the stalagmitic pavements 

 in Kent's Cavern, and we have learned something of what they 

 have to teach us. Let us now glance for a little at the general 

 succession of the beds amongst which those pavements are inter- 

 calated, and we shall find that the earth and mechanical 

 accumulations of this cave are not less eloquent of changes 

 implying the lapse of time than the similarly-formed deposits 

 at Brixham. 



In digging down into the floor -accumulations of Kent's 

 Cavern the following beds were passed through, beginning with 

 the uppermost or newest : — l 



1. A layer of Black Mould, consisting to a large extent of vegetable 

 debris, and varying in thickness from three inches to twelve inches. This 



1 This cave is being explored at the instance of the British Association, under 

 the personal superintendence of Mr. Pengelly, to whose yearly reports (Brit. Ass. 

 Reps, from 1865) and other papers (published chiefly in the Transactions of the 

 Devonshire Association) I am indebted for the notes given above. General 

 accounts of the cave will be found in Lyell's Antiquity of Man; Lubbock's 

 Prehistoric Times; Evans's Ancient Stone Implements of Britain; Boyd Daw- 

 kins's Cave-hunting ; and other works. 



