16 
darkly stained with carbonaceous matter (apparently), the name 
‘ charcoal bed 5 has been conferred upon it ; its thickness is very- 
variable * Dr. Percy, however, who saw it in situ, . stated ttiat 
it did not contain anything entitling it to this appellation. + 
I have now noticed all - the slight indications of man s pre- 
sence ” X mentioned in the Keport, m addition to the so- cal 
flint implements ; and there is none of them \ 
relied on as witnesses to give any support to evidence 
the flints; these stand alone, and in the expressive l^f| e 
of Mr. Prestwich are “ without any corroborative . a ^ nct s. s 
Yet the language of the Report still shows a desire to lean 
on these miscalled “slight indications of man's presence 
where it is said, “ But although the evidence token 
sufficiently indicates the existence of man at the Cave penoa, 
we doubt whether Brixham Cave was at any time inhabited 
by i”“‘ ’often insisted on by our law judges in summing-up 
cases of doubtful evidence, that however minute and appa- 
rently inconclusive detached facts may be in themselves 
they dovetail into each other as to time and jlace and thus 
tend to form one harmonious and complete whole, then i they 
ereatly strengthen anv hypothetical case. / , 
found ^to be irreconcilable with each other, and most of them 
"fact, then the aggregate adds no strength wha eve rto 
the cause which they are adduced to support but that tins 
castiim about for additional and defective evidence is rather 
an indication of the inherent weakness which requires such 
^n'e'jnimal Remains- The large number of bones of all 
kinds found in the cavern were very nne iqually 
the different beds. The remains also of tlie extinct and recent 
animals vvere often mingled together in the featest elusion, 
and comparatively modern bones were mixed with others, p 
sentin 0, all the characters of the most remote antiquity .^| 
who e group of animals also appear to belong to one geological 
neriod as the remains of the mammoth, the bear, and the 
Horse were found both in the lower gravel-bed and in 
"'^^distribution of the bones and the flints in the various 
beds of the cavern is as follows : 
t 
II 
Philosophical 
Ibid., p. 486. 
Ibid., p- 564. 
ansadions, vol. clxiii. p. 496. 
t Ibid., p. 564. § Ibid., P- J 6o. 
ir Ibid., vol. lxiii., p. 493. 
