3/0 
fOrULiR SClE^^CE RETIEW. 
caves was then at its height, and the Eeliquiae Diluvianse was 
known better in this country than the great work of the im- 
mortal Cuvier. Fortunately his enthusiasm was rewarded by 
tbe attainment of both objects ; for, besides the discovery of “ the 
baptismal lake of pellucid water, the creeping path of stone, 
the mystic gate of obstacle, the oven mouth , which satisfied 
him that the cave had been the Temple of Belus, he broke 
til rough the stalagmite covering of the floor, and found remains 
of the hyo3na, fox, and other animals ; to him, therefore, Mr. 
Pengelly rightly assigns the credit of the first discovery of the 
fossil mammalia. From this time there was no printed record 
of the explorations, that were conducted by many people, that is 
of any importance, until the year 1840, when Mr. Godwin 
Austen published his opinion that hyaenas had dwelt in the cave, 
and that flint implements occur in Kent’s Cave under pre- 
cisely the same conditions as the bones of all the other animals.” 
The value, he goes on to say, of such a statement must rest 
on the care with which a collector may have explored ; I must 
therefore state that my own researches were constantly con- 
ducted in parts of the cave which had never been disturbed, and 
in every instance the bones were procured from beneath a thick 
covering of stalagmite ; so far, then, the bones and works of 
man must have been introduced into the cave before the floor- 
ing of the stalagmite had been formed.”* In 1 847, and again in 
18d6, ]\Ir. Vivian corroborated the truth of Mr. Austen’s obser- 
vations. Three years afterwards he published JNIr. McEnery’s 
manuscript, written in 1834, and which doubtless furnished the 
clue to all the investigators from the time it was written. Had 
Mr. IMcEnery’s intention - of publishing a memoir of Kent’s 
Hole been carried out immediately after its exploration, we 
should certainly not have been obliged to wait until the year 
1857 for the discoveries of i\I. Boucher de Perthes in the valley 
of the Somme to prove the high antiquity of man, and archaeology 
as a science would have ranked as high as palaeontology. Such is 
tlie brief epitome of the literature of the cave. Mr. McEnery’s 
famous collection was, at his death, scattered almost literally to 
the four winds, but the lion’s share found its way to the British 
INIuseum, wl)ere, together with his unpublished plates, drawn by 
the most eminent artist of that day, Mr. Scharf, they form the 
basis of IVofessor Owen’s list of animals published in 1846. f 
We will now pass on to the consideration of the contents of 
the cave, beginning with the most modern, and thus reversing 
the usual geological order. The cave itself consists of two 
• “ Literature of Kent's Cavern, Torquay,” by W, Pengelly, F.ll.S. 
l)evon.««liire Association, 1868. 
t JJritish Posail Mainniah,” 8vc. 1846. 
