A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



bones and teeth carefully examined and identified by Mr. MacEnery 

 during the five years following/ In these excavations it was definitely 

 ascertained that flint implements of human manufacture occurred in 

 association with the remains of the extinct mammals. Although the 

 fact of this association was subsequently verified by other scientists, it 

 was not generally accepted until a similar state of things was found to 

 occur in Brixham Cave. 



The fissures at Brixham, known as the Windmill Cave, were dis- 

 covered accidentally in 1858, and their contents explored in that and the 

 following year by an influential committee, of which Mr. Pengelly and 

 the late Dr. Hugh Falconer were members.' It was here, as already 

 stated, that MacEnery's assertion as to the contemporaneity of the 

 extinct mammalian remains with objects of human workmanship was 

 fully and undisputably confirmed. Since however this is a subject con- 

 nected more closely with the existence of prehistoric man in the county 

 than with vertebrate palsontology, attention may here be restricted to 

 the more important species of mammals obtained from Devonshire 

 cavern deposits. 



In the superficial layers of the floor of both Kent's Hole and Brix- 

 ham Cave occur remains belonging to domesticated species, such as the 

 Celtic shorthorn and the sheep or goat ; and to these no further refer- 

 ence is necessary, except the bare mention that remains of the former 

 animal have also been found in the county at Berry Head. It njay be 

 added that the remains of the rabbit recorded from Brixham Cave may 

 also not improbably belong to a later epoch than the majority of those 

 of the other mammals. 



In the report of the committee for the exploration of Brixham 

 Cave Professor Busk^ recorded twenty species or races of mammals 

 (inclusive of the rabbit and Celtic shorthorn) as having been definitely 

 identified from that cavern. Later investigations have somewhat en- 

 larged the number, and the following list includes all the more impor- 

 tant species known to occur in the deposits of Greston, Kent's Hole and 

 Brixham Cave. Most interesting of all are the canine and incisor teeth 

 of the sabre-toothed tiger discovered by MacEnery and others in Kent's 

 Hole, for it was upon the evidence of these that Owen named the species 

 Macharodus latidens. For many years these were the only remains of 

 that species known from any British cavern, but this great tiger has been 

 subsequently recorded from Creswell Crags, Derbyshire. Of these 

 precious teeth one is in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 two are preserved in the British Museum, while a fourth is in the 

 Albert Museum at Exeter. Teeth and other remains of the cave lion 

 {Felis leo spelaa), some of which are in the British Museum, have been 

 obtained both from Brixham Cave and Kent's Hole, while those of the 

 wild cat {F. catus) are known from the latter cave. Far more abundant 



1 See Pengelly, 'Literature of Kent's Hole,' Trans. Devon Assoc. 1868-70. 

 ' See 'Report on the Exploration of Brixham Cave,' Proc. Royal Soc. xx. 514. 

 * PMl. Trans. 1873, P- S'?- 

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