418 
DAVIS: A^CIE^T FLINT-USERS OF YORKSHIRE. 
dissolved and re-deposited, and this may vary very much in different 
localities and at difierent times. There can, however, be no doubt 
that the time taken to form these thick deposits of stalagmite must 
indicate a very long interval between the two occupations, compared 
with which the liistorical period is a small item. Beyond the black 
earth there is the period during which the cave-earth was formed, 
and man shared occupation of the cave at intervals with the hyena ; 
and beyond that again, a thick bed of stalagmite and then the flint 
Aveapons amongst the remains of the bear. A period many thousands 
of years in extent is absolutely iudicated by the successive series of 
remains; and the oldest of them much more recent than the earliest 
remains of man in the river-gravels. Even in the latter, the most 
antiquated members of the human species were possessed of con- 
siderable intelligence, they fashioned tools and weapons, lived in 
communities and no doubt combined for purposes of offence and 
defence. It is necessary to go further back still for evidences of the 
earliest men, and it is not probable that they will be found in such 
an inhospitable climate as that of this country, but rather in the 
warm and sunny lands to the south and east. 
Having recorded the principal instances in which flint implements 
have been found, it is proposed to consider the probable condition of 
the people who used them. It has already been shown how meagre 
is the information that can be deduced from the objects taken in tlie 
abstract as they are found, and it is only by inference that we can 
ascertain the method of their living and the probable aims of their 
existence, by instituting a comparison with the people of those 
countries, still in a primitive state of existence, who manufacture 
and utilize weapons and other objects made from flint, obsidian, or 
some other stone. It is possible that one of the scientific aims of the 
present age, which will be considered most favourably by future 
generations, will be the vast stores of information which have been 
accumulated respecting the primitive condition of the human race, 
whether the matter be considered from the standpoint of an evolu- 
tionist and the development of the species from inferior animals, 
as embodied in the writings of Darwin and Huxley; or the 
scarcely less important bearings of the discoveries throughout all 
