3 
Inthe same September, at the Leeds meeting of the British 
Association, Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S., read a paper on the results 
which had been obtained, and stated, “ that in the new cavern 
in imp ements had been found under an unbroken floor of 
stalagmite, deep in the cave-earth, and mingled with the remains 
ol the ordinary extinct cave-mammals.”* 
Again, in the following year. Sir Charles Lyell brought the 
evidence obtained from this cavern before the meeting of the 
British Association at Aberdeen, in reference to its bearing on 
ie high antiquity of man ; and from that early date, down to 
he issue ol the final report of the Royal Society in 1874, the 
flints from Brixham Cavern have been constantly referred to 
as furnishing incontestable evidence of the contemporaneous 
existence of man with the extinct mammalia of the Drift period : 
but let it be observed that during these fifteen years the flints 
themselves were never produced, never even described in detail, 
oi the nature of the evidence of their human manufacture made 
known ; and if the exploration of Brixham Cavern (as it has 
been said) produced an entire revolution of opinions on the 
antiquity of man ; f such opinion was founded on faith, and 
not on sight. * 
On the 2nd of October, 1874, I visited the cavern and found 
a glass case within the entrance, in which some relics from the 
cave were placed, and shown to visitors by the proprietor • 
among other things were some plaster casts of a very perfect 
and large flint flake, 3f inches long, and well adapted to be used 
as a knife I was told by the proprietor that these casts were 
models of one of the « flint-knives ” found in the cavern, and 
deposited with the Geological Society of London. The case 
also contained the cast of a stone axe of a neolithic form. I 
purchased three of the casts of the knife, and one of the axe. 
y suspicions of the genuineness of these things were aroused, 
and afterwards confirmed, by comparing the cast of the flake 
with the description of the flints given in the report of the 
Royal Society. On the 21st of November, 1874, I forwarded 
one of the casts, and the model of the axe, to the Secretaries 
or the Royal Society, and ventured in a letter to entreat the 
council to put an end to this deception of the public, by 
teposi mg tie leal flints in the British Museum, as stipulated 
by the engagement entered into so far back as 1858. The casts 
were aic e oie the Council, and Professor Huxley was directed 
* Q narf er jy Journal of Science, April, 1874, p. 144 . 
T Journal of the London Institution, January, 1873, p. 5. See also 
Lyell s Antiquity of Man, p. 96, ist ed. ° 
B 2 
