Paleolithic implements. To make a hog-maned horse you must clip the mane, and this suggests a pair of shears, which, as far as I know, are always made of metal; and until Mr. Mello or Prof. Dawkins find some stone shears I shall certainly believe that these hog-maned horses lived not in the Paleolithic, but in the metal age. I quite agree with what Professor Dawkins says about the careful drawing of the nostrils, and mouth and neck, and that the whole is well done, so well done that its very excellence is an à priori argument that Palæolithic man did not do it. I am then quite prepared to accept the proof afforded by Creswell Caves of the contemporaneity of man with the extinct Mammalia-but not of palæolithic man. I know that it has always been assumed that Rhinoceros tichorinus and mammoth became extinct at so remote a period that any remains of man found with them are at once pronounced palæolithic. Mr. Mello and Prof. Dawkins always speak of the Creswell Cave men as paleolithic on that account. And Mr. Pengelly says, "Whilst a geologist would hesitate to pronounce a deposit of paleolithic age, merely because he had found in it a solitary unpolished flint implement, his hesitation would vanish in a moment if he also detected a relic of the cave-bear or woolly rhinoceros, or any other extinct mammal.* Mr. Skertchley places the Paleolithic fauna prior to the formation of the English Channel, and at the time when the German Ocean was a fertile plain. When, therefore, the remains of man are found with these extinct mammals, the antiquity of man is accepted as a matter of course. Now the remote date at which Rhinoceros tichorinus, mammoth, and the cave-bear became extinct is one of those supposed facts that it would be more in accordance with science to prove rather than to assume. It must also be remembered, that when the geologist speaks of the antiquity of man he does not mean what would be meant by the Egyptologist by that term. Chevalier Bunsen claimed for the human period 20,000 years, but the geologist is thought very moderate who asks for 200,000. There is a tooth of Rhinoceros tichorinus on the table, and also one of mammoth; they both came from the caves under consideration. I do not know how long such teeth will last, but certainly there is nothing in their appearance that would lead me to say that they are 200,000 years old, or older than the English Channel or the German Ocean. * The Flint and Chert Implements in Kent Cavern, p. 31. 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 implements, drew horses' heads, and with metal shears cut their flowing manes. We will now take a backward glance, and see how the previoust 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. Tiddeman 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 hyæna, Elephas 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 unknown 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 hyæna, 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, association with rhinoceros and bear in that part of the sallyport named the Islands.-British Association Report, Edinburgh, 1871. And in the cave of Rodentia in the second foot of cave-earth was found a tooth of sheep, with the teeth of hyæna, rhinoceros, bear, elephant, and lion. Also, in the charcoal cave tooth of sheep was again found with hyæna, rhinoceros, and bear. And in Long Arcade remains of pig were found, with rhinoceros, hyæna, and mammoth, in the undisturbed cave-earth.* If, then, these extinct mammals lived on till the time of the bat, rabbit, pig, and sheep, we must not attempt to draw the line too sharply between the palæolithic fauna and the present. I would now direct your attention to the sixth report of Kent's Cavern, read by Mr. Pengelly at the British Association Meeting in Liverpool, 1870. He says, that "in exploring the North Sallyport, the overlying black mould yielded potsherds, marive shells, and bones (chiefly modern, but a few of extinct animals), the astragalus of the rhinoceros being the most important of the latter." You will observe, then, that bones of extinct animals, and notably the knuckle-bone of the extinct rhinoceros, was found, not only above the granular stalagmite but in the black mould, mingled with the bones of modern animals and with potsherds. Now if we turn to Dr. John Evans' account of the cavern, we shall learn something more about these potsherds. He says in his valuable work upon "Stone Implements in Great Britain," that above the stalagmite, and principally in the black mould, have been found a "number of relics belonging to different periods," amongst which relics he mentions pottery; and then describes the pottery, some of it as "distinctly Roman in character," whilst some of it belonged to pre-Roman times. † Rhinoceros tichorinus lived, then, in Roman or pre-Roman times, and left his knuckle-bone amongst the pottery of that period. How is it, then, that we are asked to believe in man's great antiquity on the ground of man's remains being sometimes. associated with those of this extinct animal? Clearly, in the case before us, the contemporaneity only proves that man lived some 2,000 or 2,500 years back, which no one doubts. And this evidence is not unlike that of Creswell Caves, for Mr. Mello in his first paper upon their exploration read before the Geological Society, June 23, 1875, tells us that in the surface layer of Robin Hood's Cave he found several molars of * British Association Report, Belfast, 1874.. Rhinoceros tichorinus and some byæna teeth; and continues to say the upper part of the floor of this cavern also contains a small piece of Samian ware, showing an ornamental rim, and with this two or three pieces of a coarse earthenware vessel; a few recent bones of sheep were also found here.* As in Devonshire, so in Derbyshire, Rhinoceros tichorinus is found amongst the pottery; the legitimate inference is that he was contemporaneous with the potters, Roman or pre-Roman, or Samian; also that he lived when the modern sheep browsed in Creswell dale. Again, in the second report upon the caves, read before the same society, April 5th, 1876, reference is made to blasting the stalagmitic breccia which covered the cave-earth containing the bones and implements. In this breccia were found teeth of both rhinoceros and hyæna.† And Professor Dawkins in his table of contents of Robin Hood Cave, under the head of Upper Breccia, enumerates the jaws. and teeth as follows:-1 specimen of Irish elk; 1 of wild boar; 3 of horse; 2 of Rhinoceros tichorinus, and 6 of cave hyæna.‡ And in Mr. Mello's third report, read April 11th, 1877, he says, "The few remains found in the breccia consisted, as before, of bones of the hare, a few teeth of the larger pleistocene mammalia, Rhinoceros tichorinus, hyæna, bear, horse, &c. § Prof. Dawkins in his paper, read the same evening, says "that the breccia of the previous exploration turned out to be a mere local deposit, which was represented in other parts of the cave by the upper strata of cave-earth."|| And in his And in his paper at the conference, May 22, 1877, after describing the bone awls, needles, sketch of horse's head, and associated mammalian remains of the cave-earth, he says that "above the strata containing these remains was a layer of stalagmite ranging from one foot to a few inches in thickness."¶ Wherever the stalagmite, or stalagmitic breccia existed, it was always above the cave-earth; and where they did not exist, the upper stratum of cave-earth was their equivalent. Whatever, therefore, was found in this superincumbent layer of stalagmite, or in the stalagmitic breccia, or their equivalent, the upper stratum of cave-earth, must of necessity be more recent than the contents of the cave-earth below them, the upper deposits having been the last formed. * Quarterly Journal of Geological Society, vol. xxxi. p. 683. § Ibid. vol. xxxiii. p. 581. ‡ Ibid. p. 247. Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. vii. p. 154, The evidence then clearly afforded by the Creswell Caves is, that Rhinoceros tichorinus, cave hyaena, and bear lived on to a more recent date than the men who made the bone awls, bone needles, and the engraver who incised the horse's head, for they are found above them, whilst the two species rhinoceros and hyæna had not ceased to exist at the time when ornamental Samian pottery was either made in Derbyshire or imported from Samos. How then can the contemporaneity of man with the extinct mammalia prove man's antiquity? Let us now return to the Devonshire rhinoceros, which in Kent's Cavern left a portion of his frame amongst the Roman and pre-Roman remains. I think we shall find that he did not so far outlive his congeners as to be a curiosity in his day, for not only his brother rhinoceros but also the cave-bear, cave-hyæna, and the mammoth, not content with the period of the cave-earth and black band, they had splashed their way into the cavern, or had been dragged in by some of their companions after a foot or more of the upper stalagmite had been formed, for their remains were found nearly on the surface, covered only by an inch and a half of this stalagmitic substance. Mr. Pengelly produces the case to prove the very slow formation of the stalagmite, but he must forgive me for drawing another lesson from the fact, and that is, the more recent existence of the mammals referred to. I will give the passage in Mr. Pengelly's own words, as I shall have to refer to it again. Mr. Pengelly then says, in an address to the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, July, 1874:-"I have found teeth of the cave-bear, cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and the tichorine rhinoceros so very little below the surface of the stalagmite in Kent's Cavern that more than an inch and a half at most of calcareous matter had not accumulated there since they were lodged where they were met with, whilst below them was a floor of the same material a foot, and sometimes much more, in thickness; and the situation was such as to place it beyond all doubt and question that they had not been dislodged from an older deposit and re-inhumed." This is a good case for our investigation. An inch and a half of stalagmite, we learn, divides the remains of four of the most important species of extinct mammalia from the astragalus of rhinoceros found in the black mould containing Roman and pre-Roman pottery. We have, then, but to learn how long that inch and half took to form to enable us to determine how far removed in time were these mammals from the Roman or pre-Roman period. We have not much data from which to * Notes on Palæontology of Devonshire, W. Pengelly, p. 21. |