213 
hatchets ” had really been fashioned by the hand of man, and 
he urged Mr. Prestwich by letter thoroughly to explore the 
geology of this valley. This he accomplished, in company with 
Mr. Evans, and the result of their survey led them also to 
believe that the chipped flints found in the gravel with the 
bones of the extinct animals were manufactured tools, and that 
man was, therefore, contemporaneous with the mammoth and 
other extinct mammalia. 
Thus, Brixham Cave is said to have become famous as first 
furnishing the evidence which dispelled former doubts, stimu- 
lated future research, and prepared the way for the adoption of 
the opinions of that enthusiastic antiquary Boucher de Perthes, 
that some of the roughly-chipped flints of the drift-beds were 
fashioned by human hands. 
So much" stress has been laid on the evidence derived from 
the exploration of this cave — -such strong statements were early 
put forward of the human manufacture of the exhumed flints — 
that I resolved to make a careful survey of this cavern, and of 
its surroundings, and to test the bearing of its evidence on the 
antiquity of man. Accordingly, I have lately visited the Cavern 
on three several occasions, made a ground-plan of its different 
chambers, examined the remaining portions of its beds, and the 
composition of the drifted gravel ; and, in addition, made a 
searching survey of the geology of the neighbourhood : and 
further, through the courtesy of a Eellow of the Geological 
Society, I have had an opportunity of inspecting some of the 
exhumed bones and flints lodged in the Society’s rooms at 
Somerset House. The general result of my investigations 
tends to show ; that all the facts of the case have not yet been 
made known ; that some have been wrongly interpreted ; that 
the so-called flint knives, on which the evidence of man’s 
presence rests, are simply subsoil flakes, and that there is no 
proof whatever that they are manufactured tools. 
The Cavern itself (represented by the dark portions of the 
plan on page 215) has been naturally formed along the lines of 
the jointed structure of the limestone rock ; this is not only 
obvious from an inspection of its interior, but it is found by the 
compass that the direction of the chambers within the cave cor- 
responds with the course of the joints in the adjoining lime- 
stone quarry. These joints run nearly N. and S., and E. and 
W., by the compass, the variation being 21° west. These 
natural divisional planes have been eroded and enlarged by 
water to a width of from 4 to 8 feet, and in this manner the 
chambers of the cave have been formed, and there is no evidence 
and no pretence that man has in any manner excavated or modi- 
fied any portion of it so as to render it fit for his habitation. 
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