may, it is at all events a very noteworthy and remarkable formation. It contains no inscriptions or marks by which we might calculate the lapse of time occupied in its deposit; but Mr. Pengelly tells us that it shows by its thin lamina that it was formed slowly, and by its great thickness—sometimes fully twelve feet-that in all probability the time over which it extended vastly exceeded that of the modern granular floor. According to Mr. McEnery, it was in some places (in the bears' den) silicious, and struck fire with the pickaxe.† Mr. Pengelly calls this the old floor of crystalline stalagmite, and relies upon it to make up a large portion of his 720,000 years. I cannot understand the argument, that the thinness of the laminæ implies a long period of time. That which I do see is that it must have been formed under very different circumstances from the upper floor, which, as we have seen, is granular, whilst this is crystalline. The difference arises probably from the fact of its having crystallized under the influence of a great excess of carbonic acid, as an experiment which is easily tried seems to show. Mr. McEnery observes with great propriety that "according to the variation in the chemical fluids at different points of the work, this substance was deposited in crystalline beds or granular spongy masses."‡ But what is the explanation of its deposit? I may be pardoned for withholding my assent to theories which seem to me insufficient. Mr. P. says, "the conformation of the hill containing Kent's Hole renders it certain that the only water entering the cavern is the rain which falls on the hill itself, and the only source of stalagmitic matter is the limestone shell of the cavern."§ This may be the case now, but it was otherwise, he admits, when the red earth was washed in. Mr. Pengelly says, "When the bottoms of the valleys were at least one hundred feet above their present levels, persistent streams or fitful land-floods carried the characteristic red loam into these caverns."|| Very probably, but then what becomes of the tranquil deposit theory?¶ "Lastly, we reach the period of the breccia, when there was carried into the cavern (but how and from whence ?) a loam of darker red and rock fragments, of more distant derivation than those which compose the cave-earth." Even here, I regret to say, were indications of man; for a flint flake and a perfectly angular and sharp flint chip were found three feet deep in the breccia, mingled with the remains of * Comp. p. 15. + Lit. K.C., p. 51. ‡ Lit. K. C., p. 42. Antiquity of Man, p. 32. T Ancient Cave Mon, p. 8. the bear." "The flake is undoubtedly the most ancient human relic that up to this time the cavern has yielded." Sir Charles Lyell says, "three flint implements and one flint chip." Mr. Boyd Dawkins says "four flint implements."+ I have no means now of reconciling this diversity, nor have I examined these ancient specimens. The fact is that I once asked Christy (who was my friend and schoolfellow) how many of the flint implements he thought genuine, and he replied "about eighty per cent." Since then my belief in them generally has been conformed to the above proportion. To assume from these flints the joint tenancy of the bears' den, as divided between these interesting animals and man, would indicate a credulity beyond that of "the Jew Apella. Nor is alternate tenancy much more probable. "In the very bed containing their bones [in another part of the cave?] a rude knife-shaped piece of iron was detected much corroded." How did this come there? (McEnery, p. 286.) Was the smelting of iron also known 100,000 years ago? I turn with inexpressible relief from the lowest floor of the cavern to the free light of heaven. "E come quei che con lena affannata, Uscito fuor del pelago al riva, Si volge all' acqua perigliosa è guata." I I feel like one delivered from a distressing dream, and I ask myself what is there real in these countless ages of miserable humanity? To sum up briefly the points on which the investigation of the many scientific labourers after McEnery fails to satisfy me in reference to Kent's Cavern: 1st. I do not believe that the two entrances on the east side of the hill have been the only entrances. The First Report of the committee informs us that there were formerly four or five entrances to the cavern, of which two only were generally known; the others being merely narrow apertures or slits, through which, until they were blocked up from within, the inmates were wont to enter clandestinely. 2nd. At one, two, or more intervals a powerful current must have swept through the cave, introducing at the earlier period the breccia "of unknown depth," differing " from the cave *The Ancient Cave Men of Devonshire, p. 15. + Cave-Hunting, p. 328. Dante. Inferno, Canto i. 122 :- "And even as he who with distressful breath, Forth issued from the sea upon the shore, Turns to the water perilous and gazes." earth in the darker red of the loam, and the much greater prevalence of stones not derivable from the cavern hill. At a later period, or periods, the same cause must have operated in bringing in the "cave-earth," and sweeping before it an accumulation of bones, sometimes, I was told, a barrow-load together, and in all unimaginable confusion, not at all like the effect of a tranquil deposit. In addition to this must be noticed the blocks of stalagmite "in every branch of the cavern," whose structure indicated that they were portions of an old floor, which in some way not easy of explanation had been broken up.* 3rd. That due allowance has not been made for other very obvious causes of disturbances of the contents of the cavern. It is quite possible that not only the teeth of the Ursus cultridens found by the committee, but many other things, may have got out of place in the mêlée. 4th. Including, perhaps, the one human jaw in the upper stalagmite floor, for who shall certify that all this magma of "granular stalagmite" was stalagmite at all, and not rather filtered in through chinks and passages, bringing with the carbonate of limet also the iron in such a state of oxidation as it occurs in the superincumbent soil. I can at all events certify that the iron in its present state did not enter as solution filtering through the rock and forming real stalagmite or stalactite. If washed in from the surface, we are at once delivered from the question, what became of the rest of the skeleton, and also from all the laboured calculations about the lapse of time, which simply disappear. The gravel of which Mr. Pengelly speaks as probably occupying the valley, and requiring an immense time to excavate, might have been washed out in a single night. 5th. As to the lower or crystalline stalagmite floor of laminated and granular structure, I object to any deductions being made from a totally different formation, that is, the upper floor, as to its rate of deposit, and the consequent lapse of time. One thing seems to me pretty clear, that it must have assumed its present crystalline structure under the influence of a considerable excess of carbonic acid. How this may have come about and what are the conclusions to be derived from it (if such be indeed the fact), I leave to be inferred from * Third Report, p. vi. + Mr. McEnery speaks of "the roof, the vestibule, as pierced with spiral holes and clefts in all directions, but [now] closed at the surface through which flowed copiously the calcareous matter."-Lit. K. C., p. 59. the following observations of Sir Charles Lyell as to calcareous springs Many springs hold so much carbonic acid in solution that they are enabled to dissolve a much larger quantity of calcareous matter than rain-water.” "Calcareous springs, although most abundant in limestone districts, are by no means confined to them, but flow out indiscriminately from all rock formations. In central France, a district where the primary rocks are usually destitute of limestone, springs copiously charged with carbonate of lime rise up through the granite and the gneiss. One of these springs at the northern base of the hill on which Clermont is built issues from volcanic peperino, which rests on granite. It has formed by its incrustations an elevated mound of travertin, or white concretionary limestone, 240 feet in length, and at its termination 16 feet high and 12 wide." I presume that this is the same spring which forms incrustations on birds' nests or similar natural objects, in a very short time, as I was told when there. "The more loose and porous rock (like the upper floor) is called tufa, the more compact (like the lower floor) travertin." "If we pass from the volcanic district of France to that which skirts the Apennines, in the Italian peninsula we meet with innumerable springs, which have precipitated so much calcareous matter that the whole ground in some parts of Tuscany is coated over with tufa and travertin, and sounds hollow beneath the foot." "The water which supplies the baths of San Fillipo falls into a pond where it has been known to deposit a solid mass thirty feet thick in about twenty years. Near the hot baths called the Bulicame, a monticule is seen about 20 feet high and 500 yards in circumference, entirely composed of concretionary travertin. The lamina are very thin, and their minute undulations so arranged that the whole mass has at once a concentric and radiated structure.”† The rest of Sir C. Lyell's observations may be read with advantage, but are too long for me to quote. In reference to the probable flow of water through the cavern, I would adduce the following observations of Louis Figuier in his Primitive Man, which seem to me well-founded and applicable to Kent's Cavern as well as that of Brixham. "It is supposed that the bones in question were deposited in these hollows by the rushing in of the currents of diluvial water which had drifted them along in their course. A fact * Principles of Geology, 7th ed. 1847, pp. 238 to 244. + See p. 12. which renders this likely is that drift pebbles are constantly found in close proximity to the bones. Now these pebbles come from localities at considerable distance from the cavern. There are evident indications that these bones had been carried along by rapid currents of water, which swept away everything in their course, or, in other words, by the current of the waters of the deluge, which signalized the quaternary epoch. It is specially to be noted that "rolled stones, not derivable from the cavern-hill occur here and there in every part* [of Kent's Cavern] which has been explored." These comprised "pieces of granite from Dartmoor, crystalline schist from the Start and Bolt (15 miles off), and even of slate from the more immediate neighbourhood." I read in the committee's First Report that many of the bones "appear to have been rolled, including most of those which had been gnawed; and in the case of the latter it is tolerably obvious that the rolling was subsequent to the gnawing." In order to present this more clearly I shall refer to the evidence of Mr. McEnery, who seems to me to have read the riddle of the cave more perfectly than its other explorers. Having described the obstacles which he had to remove before he could obtain entrance into a before unexplored part of the cavern, he says, "This obstacle removed, we burned with impatience to penetrate into the chambers beyond. As a grotto hung with curious concretions of dazzling brilliancy, it well repaid our search. The floor sloped upwards and conducted into two oven-shaped branches, which it threw off to the right and left, similar to those near the common entrance, and with which the one on the right seemed to communicate, though partly closed up at present with stalactites. That on the left seemed to pierce through the boundary wall of the cavern into the open air." We e now returned to the excavation which produced the wolf's head. The stalagmite was about a foot and a half thick, and of excessive hardness, in which were embedded rocky fragments rolled down the slope; but as we advanced inwards, the stalagmite became altogether free from foreign admixture, and moulded itself upon the mass of bones. Of the quantity and condition of the remains here it is scarcely possible to give a just idea without appearing to exaggerate. They were so thickly packed together that, to avoid injuring them, we were obliged to lay aside the picks and grub them out with our fingers. They had suffered considerably from † First Report, p. S. *Third Report of Committee, p. 6. ‡ McEnery, p. 55. |