19 
bionze But the anteriority of those at Brixham to the 
extinct animals is demonstrated not only by the occurrence 
at one point in overlying stalagmite of the bone of a cave- 
bear but also by the discovery at the same level in the bone- 
earth, and in close proximity to a very perfect flint tool, of the 
entire left hind-leg of a cave-bear.” « Every bone 
was m its natural place; the femur, tibia, fibula, ankle-bone, 
or astragalus, all in juxtaposition. Even the patella, or de- 
tached bone of the knee-pan, was searched for, and not in 
J f mn ‘ , V ' were no ^ aP °f contemporary date, 
it is clear from this case, and from the humerus of the EW 
•s pelceus (cave-bear) before cited as found in a floor of stalagmite, 
lat the bear lived after the flint tools were manufactured, or, in 
o her words, that man in this district preceded the cave-bear.”* 
I he whole of this evidence in support of the high antiquity 
pf man is destroyed by the single fact that neither the humerus 
m th 7 e stalagmite, nor the leg of the bear in the bone-earth, 
ccin be identified as belonging to the extinct cave-bear. The 
after famous specimen, we are now told by Mr. Penally is 
probaUy that of Ursus arctos,” + the common brown bear 
ceiflral Euro m e Eng and 1U post ’- R ' omaa times ; and still inhabits 
But further, this whole statement, so fully set out and insisted 
on by Sir C. Lyell m the first edition of his Antiquity of Man 
is now found to be loaded with erroneous and mistaken facts' 
J hus the bone described as the fibula proves to be the radius; 
and that said to be the patella is, m reality, the detached end 
of the radius above noticed; the “flint tool” was not in close 
proximity to the bear's leg, but twelve feet from it; the tool 
was not at the same level in the bone-earth as the leg, but 
fifteen inches above it ;J and if the age of the so-called knives 
must be inferred from the associated mammalia, then (on the 
assumption that they are knives) they may have belonged to 
neolithic or even to historic times. 
It is curious that this hind-leg of the bear, the most famous 
specimen of the cavern, does not appear to have been recorded 
in the register ;§ and the flint so prominently associated with 
it, and said to be the best-formed implement in the series, we 
are now told was accidentally broken after its exhumation ; and 
has, unfortunately, been mislaid.” || 
, Antiquity of Man, 1st ed., pp. 100, 101. 
T ™nsactions of the Devon Association, vol. vi. p. 826. 
t Ahuosophical Transactions, vol. clxiii., p. 534 
§ The Report, p. 533. 
|| Transactions of the Devon Association, vol. vi. pp. 830, 831 
c 2 
