15 
intermittent between periods of occupation during which they 
were dry. In other words, they were on the borders of a river, 
subject to inundation, and Avithin the limits of the inundation. 
The caves of the Dordogne and of Bruniquel, in France, do not 
present the action of floods, but accretion of soil by inhabita- 
tion without disturbance. Undoubtedly they show that Avild 
animals now extinct haunted these caves and that man hunted 
them, and used them for food, and also the flesh of reindeer in 
a district where the latter do not uoav exist, besides that 
of some creatures still living in the district. 
As far then as geological evidence of antiquity goes, it 
is merely a question as to what changes have taken place 
in the valleys since the accumulation of the soil forming the 
floors, — Avhat was the time necessary for the formation of the 
stalagmite which in some cases overlies them, and of the 
calcareous breccia into Avhich they have been converted. These 
are dependent upon such variable conditions • that it seems 
utterly hopeless to attempt to assign positive dates. Here, 
again, Ave have to quote from Mr. PrestAvich the cautious 
remark : — “ Some doubt must always attach to the determina- 
tion of the relative antiquity of the cave remains, owing to the 
several possible causes of disturbance, whether by physical 
operations which re-arranged the contents of the cave, or by 
the agency of animals or of man producing local displace- 
ments/”* 
And with regard to the stalagmite on which so much stress 
has been laid as proving extreme antiquity, various observers, — 
Mr. Farrar, at the Victoria Cave; Professor Phillips in the 
Ingleborough Caves ; and Mr. Dawkins, — may be said to have 
established the average rate, at a quarter of an inch per annum ; 
( i.e .) 20 feet of stalagmite may be formed in 1,000 years; and, 
says the last named, — “ It may fairly be concluded, that the 
layers of stalagmite cannot be used as an argument in support 
of the remote age of the strata below. 
The mammoth or palaeolithic age, and the reindeer or neo- 
lithic age, cannot always be sharply separated though usually 
betraying change of level between them. Perhaps in America 
they cannot be separated at all. Some of the French and Bel- 
gian caves of the first stage show that the rudest implement con- 
tained Avas still used among the later people. But on the Avliole 
the distinction is real and well-founded, and indicates true succes- 
sion. Palaeolithic man may have been altogether a transitory 
visitor in these parts. His cave abodes may have been mere 
* Report on Brixham Cave, p. 560. 
t lb., p. 40. 
