1872.] 



the Exploration of Brixharn Cave. 



523 



one spot, favourably situated, a series of thin seams of stalagmite, contem- 

 poraneous with the cave-earth, was met with. 



Although the evidence proves the contemporaneity of Man with the cave 

 animals, it is doubtful whether Brixharn Cave was at that period ever 

 inhabited by man. Caves have constantly been a place of resort for un- 

 civilized man, either for shelter or for security. When resorted to per- 

 manently for these objects, traces of his habitation, in the form of refuse 

 (whether of bones cast away at meals, of broken and lost tools of daily use, 

 and, after the discovery of fire, of hearths and their surroundings), neces- 

 sarily occur in quantities more or less abundant, according to the length of 

 man's habitation ; but no such evidence of his presence exists. It may 

 rather be supposed that the worked flints were lost or left behind by man 

 during occasional visits to the cave, either for the sake of temporary refuge, 

 or in following prey which may have sought shelter there. 



Looking at all the phenomena of Brixharn Cave, the conclusion your 

 reporter has arrived at is that the formation of the cave commenced and 

 was carried on simultaneously with the excavation of the valley — that the 

 small streams flowing down the upper tributary branches of the valley 

 entered the western openings of the cave and, traversing the fissures in the 

 limestone, escaped by lower openings in the chief valley, just as the Grotte 

 d'Arcy was formed by an overflow from the Cure taking a short cut through 

 the limestone hills, round which the river winds. These tributary streams 

 brought in the shingle bed No. 3 which fills the bottom of the fissure. It 

 was only during occasional droughts, when the streams were dry, that the 

 cave seems to have been frequented by animals, their remains being very 

 scarce in that bed, while indications of man are comparatively numerous. As 

 the excavation of the valley proceeded, the level of the stream was lowered 

 and became more restricted to the valley-channel. The cave consequently 

 became drier, and was more resorted to by predatory animals, who carried in 

 their prey to devour, and was less frequented by man. At the same time, 

 with the periodical floods which there is every reason to believe, from other 

 investigations, were so great during the quaternary period, the cave would 

 long continue to be subject to inundations, the muddy waters of which 

 deposited the silt forming the cave-earth, burying progressively the bones 

 left from season to season by succeeding generations of beasts of prey. 

 By the repetition at distant intervals of these inundations, and by the accu- 

 mulation during the intervening periods of fresh crops of bones, the bone- 

 bearing cave-earth was gradually formed. During this time the occasional 

 visits of man are indicated by the rare occurrence of a flint implement lost 

 probably as he groped his way through the dark passages of the cave. As 

 the valley became deeper, and as, with the change of climate at the close of 

 the quaternary period, the floods became less, so did the cave become drier 

 and more resorted to by animals. At last it seems to have become a place 

 of permanent resort for bears : their remains in all stages of growth, in- 

 cluding even sucking cubs, were met with in the upper part of the cave-earth, 



