570 
REPORT ON THE EXPLORATION OP BRIXHAM CAVE. 
strongest manner inquiries into its correctness and value, which we ourselves had long 
been contemplating, but which might have been still longer postponed but for the corro- 
borative testimony afforded by Brixham Cave. Late as we are therefore in bringing 
forward the whole of the evidence afforded by this cave, it must not be overlooked that, 
however interesting the full record may prove, the exploration has already had an imme- 
diate and direct value in the successful impulse which it gave to so important a question 
as that of the antiquity of man. W ell established as this fact now is from other and 
independent grounds, nevertheless the evidence of Brixham has its own special points of 
value, — in the completeness of its record, in the certainty of its data, and in the fact of 
its having been the first entire ossiferous cavern which was worked out in a systematic 
and complete manner, and the contents preserved for scientific use and reference*. It 
records also a time in geological science of very great importance, one marked by the 
removal of the boundary which had hitherto divided man from the extinct animals — a 
barrier no sooner removed than the search, before directed timidly to the measurement 
of man’s age by the span of historical and traditional periods, became now boldly directed 
back into the later geological periods in search of his first appearance. But, notwith- 
standing the range of our new vista, we should not so much speculate on its indefinite 
extension, but rather seek to obtain those indisputable data, whether as regards the 
true position of the strata in which such remains may be found, or as regards the arti- 
ficial character of those remains, without which we might have continued yet to hesitate 
to admit man’s existence in the Quaternary period. 
Joseph Prestwich. 
{ George Busk. 
R. Godwin-Austen. 
A. Ramsay. 
Description of the Plates. 
PLATE XLI. 
Fig. 1. Photograph of Entrance to Cave after clearing away the talus of limestone debris 
by which it was hidden. north and south joint coincident with the line 
of the Reindeer Gallery. 
Fig. 2. Section of Brixham Valley, showing the position of the Cave on the slope of 
Windmill Hill. The 150-feet terrace is on the authority of a section by 
Mr. Pengelly. 
Fig. 3. Geological Sketch Map, showing the direction of Brixham Valley and the rocks 
through which it passes. 
* All the specimens are to be deposited in the British Museum, and the original documents and maps in the 
archives of the Royal Society.! 
