220 
I think the time has now fairly come to ask calmly the 
question, whether finding the works of man in association with 
Rhinoceros tichorinus and mammoth, instead of proving man’s 
great antiquity, does not rather prove the more recent extinction 
of these mammals, seeing that it is now found that they lived 
when men made polished bone needles, hammered out iron im- 
plements, drew horses’ heads, and with metal shears cut their 
flowing manes. 
We will now take a backward glance, and see how the previous 
evidence stands respecting the place in history of some of the 
best known of the extinct mammalia. 
From the evidence afforded by the Victoria Cavern, Mr. Tidde- 
man thought he had proof of the presence of man, independently 
of the bone now handed back to the ursine family. 
Mr. Tiddeman called attention to two bones with marks upon 
them, which indicated, to his mind, the work of man. These 
bones were found with the extinct mammalia ; but on their 
examination at the Anthropological conference, it was suggested 
that the marks, if indeed cut by man, had been cut with a 
metal instrument ; if so, the evidence would not be worth much 
in sustaining the doctrine of man’s antiquity. But whatever 
were the doubts about the marking on the bones, of this, about 
one of them there appeared to be no doubt in the minds of 
competent authorities, — namely, that it was the rib-bone of a 
goat ; and Mr. Tiddeman says of the goat, that it certainly had 
appeared in Victoria Cave in association with the remains of 
hyaena, Eleplias antiquus , and Rhinoceros leptorhinus , showing 
that these extinct animals had not died out in Yorkshire when 
the goat lived amongst its crags and scars. Now the modern origin 
of the goat is distinctly recognized by osteologists, and was un- 
known in Europe before the Neolithic age.* 
The goat, then, gives us the clue to the age of his associates. 
If we now go back to Kent’s Cavern, Devonshire, where Mr. 
Pengelly has constructed a chronology from the cave deposits, 
we find a granular stalagmite that divides a layer designated 
the Black mould, from another denominated the Black band. 
The black mould represents the modern period, whilst the 
black band, together with the cave-earth, are the storehouse 
of antiquity. The granular stalagmite is then the supposed 
dividing-line between the far past and the present. 
Whilst satisfied with such division in the main, I must yet, 
remember that the hyoena, rhinoceros, elephant, and bear, were 
found in the same foot of cave-earth with the bat and rabbit in 
the excavation of Smeedon Passage. Rabbit was also found in 
* Prof. Dawkins, Macmillan's Magazine, December, 1870. 
