These three localities are the only places in Britain where implements of man have been found associated with the extinct mammalia in post-glacial river deposits.

We come now to the evidence afforded by the caverns, which proves how essentially man formed one of the group of mammals existing in post-glacial times. In 1832, the Rev. Mr. McEnery began his excavation of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, Devonshire, and discovered numerous flakes of flint and spear-heads of the small flattened type found in the cave of Moustier. There were also roughly-chipped thin oval fragments of flints, of the type commonly called sling-stones. They were underneath the stalagmite, and associated with the remains of the following animals :-the cave lion, the sabretoothed lion, the cave hyæna, wolf, fox, ermine, badger, cave bear, brown bear, otter, urus, Irish elk, stag, reindeer, mammoth, wild boar, Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, tailless hare, water-rat, Arvicota pratensis, Arvicota agrestis, hare, and rabbit. The occurrence of the great sabre-toothed lion in this deposit is so remarkable, that Dr. Falconer could not bring himself to believe that this Pliocene animal had really been found in the cavern, and he supposed it to have been mixed up, by some accident, with the remains from Kent's Hole, in Mr. McEnery's collection. That, however, the three canines upon which the determination of this mammal has been made were actually found in Kent's Hole, is proved by McEnery's manuscript, as well as by the condition of their matrix. He describes them, with other animals, from a portion of the cavern that he calls the Wolf's Passage, found underneath the stalagmite, with thousands of teeth of hyæna, horse, and rodents. Unfortunately, the account of the exploration of this cavern was not published until 1859,* and consequently the idea of the presence of the works of man with the remains of Pleistocene mammals, under circumstances which would prove that he lived in Pleistocene times, was not brought home to the minds of English savants until nearly thirty years after the discovery. In 1840,† however, Mr. Goodwin Austin put on record that he had obtained from the same cavern the works of man from undisturbed earth under stalagmite, mingled with the remains of extinct mammals. Public attention was not directed to the occurrence of flint implements in caverns until 1858, when the Royal Society, stimulated by the fruits of the

* "Cavern Researches," by the Rev. J. MacEnery, edit. E. Vivian, 8vo, 1859, p. 32:-"To enumerate the amount of fossils collected from this spot (Wolf's Passage) would be to give the inventory of half my collection, comprising all the genera and their species, including cultridens (Machairodus). The jaws of the elk, horse, and hyena were taken out whole. The teeth of the two last were gathered in thousands, and in the midst of all were myriads of Rodentia."

+ "Trans. Geol. Soc.," Ser. II., vol. vi., p. 433.

labours of M. Boucher de Perthes, undertook the exploration of the cave of Brixham, also near Torquay, Devonshire, Dr. Falconer, F.R.S., and Mr. Prestwich, F.R.S., being on the exploration committee. Their labours resulted in the discovery of flint flakes associated with the remains of the following animals, which have been determined by Mr. Busk:-cave lion, cave hyena, fox, wolf, cave bear, brown bear, Ursus priscus, stag, roe-deer, reindeer, mammoth, horse, woolly rhinoceros, tailless hare, and teeth of arvicolæ. Mr. Busk has lately proved that the Ursus priscus of Goldfuss, quoted by Schmerling, from the caverns of Liege, is identical with the grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains (Ursus ferox); so that we have another mammal to be added to the American group of animals that lived in France, Germany, and Britain with man.

Dr. Falconer and Col. Word, about the year 1858,* explored the caverns of Gower, in South Wales. They discovered vast quantities of flint flakes associated with the remains of the cave lion, cave hyena, fox, badger, cave bear, brown bear, grizzly bear, bison, Irish elk, stag, reindeer (Cervus Guettardi and Cervus Bucklandi), Rhinoceros tichorinus and Rh. leptorhinus of Owen (Rh. hemitochus, Falc.). The association of these two latter animals in the same undisturbed earth proves that they cannot be considered as characteristic of two different geological epochs. In the year 1859,† I, together with Mr. Williamson, had the good fortune to explore a cavern at Wootrey, a village near Wells, in Somersetshire, that afforded, among vast stores of the remains of mammals, abundant traces of the presence of man. The cave opened on a ravine side; and at the time we began our excavations it was completely blocked up with earth. Lying on the floor, in the large chamber at the entrance, which was about eight feet high, about thirty feet wide, and very well lighted, were the remains of the fires and the feast of some ancient tribe. Among the calcined bones was one of rhinoceros, which, from its dark, carbonized character, must have been burnt while containing gelatine. In three distinct groups we found the implements that had been left behind, consisting of flint flakes, lanceheads of the type found at Moustier, sling-stones, and various fragments of flint that had been used for cutting. The presence of several flint cores proves that the manufacture of flakes had been carried on in the cave. There were also two arrow-heads found, without barbs; the one of chert, and the other of bone; the two lower angles of the latter being bevelled off. Unfortunately, both these were lost before they were engraved. There was also an implement of pyramidal "Quart. Geol. Journ.," 1860, vol. xvi., p. 489.

*

"Quart. Geol. Journ.,” 1862, vol. xviii. p. 115; 1863, vol xix., p. 261.

form, with a flat base and cutting edge all round, somewhat similar to a cast, in my possession, of one from the cave of Aurignac. All these were found either on or within two feet of the floor of the cave. They were imbedded in red earth, containing large stones, and enormous quantities of the remains of mammalia. Above the flint implements, in some places, were layers of comminuted bone and coprolites of hyæna; and in and around these was the greatest quantity of bones. These layers indicated old floors. I continued the excavations up to the year 1866, and the list of mammals which I have determined is second only to that of Kent's Hole. It comprises cave lion, cave hyæna, wolf, fox, badger, cave bear, brown bear, grizzly bear, urus, bison, Irish elk, stag, reindeer, mammoth, horse, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, R. leptorhinus of Owen, water-rat, and lemming.

There was clear evidence that the cavern had been inhabited by hyænas, and that the animals to which the remains belonged had fallen a prey to them. The traces of old floors above the flint implements prove that they inhabited it after the departure of man. Such as this is the evidence of the coexistence of man with the Pleistocene mammals, afforded by the contents of caverns in Britain. The small proportion which those caverns that contain the traces of man bear to those in which no traces of him have been found, shows that he was small in point of numbers as compared with most of the other animals.

Out of the thirty caverns explored in Great Britain, the contents of which I have classified, four only have yielded human remains; while out of forty river-deposits containing mammalia, only three have furnished any trace of man. Had man been very abundant in those days, we might certainly have hoped to have found his implements more widely spread, and especially as they were fashioned out of a material that is almost indestructible. That, however, he formed an integral member of the post-glacial fauna of the Pleistocene, is proved by the following table, in which I have arranged in order the animals found with man in old river-beds and in caverns, and the animals from river-beds and caverns in which he has not been found. The correspondence of these four columns show that the deposits from which the animals were derived are of the same geological age. The Bos longifrons, which has been inserted among the British fossil mammals by Professor Owen, is purposely omitted, because there is no evidence that the animal was living at the time in Great Britain :

* "Quart. Geol. Journ.," 1867, vol. xxiii. Brit. Foss. Oxen.

THE RELATION OF THE ANIMALS FOUND ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMAINS OF MAN IN THE CAVERNS AND RIVER DEPOSITS TO THE BRITISH POST-GLACIAL FAUNA.

Such as there were, the animals with which the first man was surrounded, the mammoth, the horse, and the bison were most abundant; the reindeer was far more common than the red-deer, and that again than the roe. The Tichorhine rhinoceros was more widely spread than the Leptorhine, and the hippopotamus than the wild boar. The cave lion and cave hyæna, wolf and fox, were moderately abundant, while the badger and brown bear were comparatively scarce. Among them man appears for the first time in the world's history, scantily armed, and few in numbers, and by the exercise of that intellect which separates him from the rest of the animal world, asserted himself their king. His craft proved stronger than their strength, and his cunning sharper than their claws or teeth. In his time Great Britain formed part of the continent, and the Thames flowed northwards to join the Rhine and Elbe in forming an estuary in the latitude of Berwick. The climate, also, was so severe, that glaciers descended from the mountains of Cambria, Scotland, and Wales, and the reindeer and musk-sheep could live in the lowlands. Then all these conditions passed away, the land became depressed, until Britain was insulated, and the waves of the Channel rolled over what was before the great feeding-ground of the Pleistocene herbivores, and the climate became warmer, until the arctic mammalia were obliged to retreat northwards. Coincident with this was the disappearance of the characteristic Pleistocene mammalia from the restricted area of Great Britain, and with them all traces of the first man, who spread over France and Italy,* using the same implements, and therefore possessed of the same habits, passed away.

*This occurrence of implements of the Amiens and Abbeville type associated with the remains of extinct mammalia in Italy, is proved by the discoveries of M. Louis Caselli, President of the Society of Immaculate Conception, in the gravel of Ponte Mammolo.-Correspondance de Rome, 4th May, 1867.