FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN KENT'S CAVERN. 361 
actually here, and in great force. In other words, the men of the 
Breccia, the Ursine period of the Cavern, saw this country an island 
as we see it,—unless, indeed, their era was prior to this in- 
sularity—when it was also occupied by Bears and Lions, but not 
by Hyzenas ; whilst in the time of their descendants, or their suc- 
cessors, the whole of Western Europe had been so elevated that the 
channel which previously and subsequently separated it from the 
continent was dry, and Britain was in a continental condition. 
The conclusion which has just been reached will of course be 
met with the question, ‘‘ What countenance does geological science 
give to it?”’ Are there other, independent, and sufficient reasons 
for believing that Britain, in what geologists would call very recent 
times, has been in a continental condition? Before proceeding to 
this question, however, there is a topic, arising out of what has been 
already advanced, deserving a passing notice.’ Though the absence of 
remains or indications of the Hyzena in the Breccia appears to admit 
of no other interpretation than that the genus had not then reached 
this country, the same inference cannot be drawn respecting the 
Horse, Ox, Deer, &c., whose remains are equally wanting in the 
same deposit; for it may be presumed that their bones occur in 
caverns mainly because their dead bodies were dragged thither 
piecemeal by the Hysena; and, excepting such bones as may have 
been washed in by continuous streams or occasional floods, this 
could not have occurred, even though they had crowded the country, 
before the arrival of the great bone-eating scavenger who made the 
Cavern his home. The remains of the Bear in the Breccia present 
no difficulty, for their introduction did not require the agency of the 
Hyena, since the Bear is a Cave-dweller. The presence of the few 
feline teeth in the Breccia, already mentioned, may be sufficient 
probably to account for teeth marks should any hereafter be detected 
on osseous remains in that deposit, for though the felide do not eat 
bones, they very industriously gnaw them. Such marks, however, 
have not yet been detected. 
But to return to the question of the continental condition of 
Britain in times geologically recent: The scheme of geological 
chronology employed by Sir C. Lyell is based on Paleontology. 
In it, all deposits in which the fossil remains of Jammals, as well 
as of Mollusks, are those of specics identical with such as now live, 
are termed ecent. Those next below, and therefore next older, 
