I
•I, ;
i f
!1
CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
animals of immense antiquity; and it has been henee inferred tliat man must have been
contemporary with these species. Upon strict examination, however, it is clear that the synchronism
of human remains with those of the lower animals referred to, cannot be maintained.
In the remarkable cavern caUed Kent's Hole, near Torquay in Devonshire, great quantities of
fossil bones of extinct species of Bears, Hysenas, Lions, and Tigers, have been dug ujo from
beneath a stalagmitic floor of considerable thickness. Intermingled with these bones have been
found knives, arrow-heads, and spear-heads of flint, implements of bone, and fragments of coarse
pottery, similar to those from the earliest British tumuli. There is, however, clear evidence,
from the position in which these objects were found, from the shells of mussels, oysters and
limpets, from the ashes and decomposed animal and vegetable matter, the remains of fires and
feasts, and from the heaps of flint pebbles, with flakes and weapons of the same, in aU stages of
completeness, that this cave had formed the workshop and perhaps the residence of some
primeval Britons, where they prepared the implements of the chase and of fishing. It is
clear that had the cave at this period been the abode of the sanguinary animals, the remains
of which are so abundant in its interior, it would not have been so resorted to by man. The
mistvu-e, which it certainly presents, of human relics with those of the extinct animals, might
easily have occurred, if the stalagmitic floor had been at aU broken up by its later and human
occupants. That this was actually done, at least in one spot, is proved by the discovery of a
human skeleton, about a foot and a half beneath the existing stalagmitic floor, sm-rounded by
flags of stalagmite, which had clearly been broken up to form a grave. That the human
remains should, equally with those of the extinct animals, be sealed up below a crust of
stalagmite, which is still in process of formation, need not surprise us*.
In Aquitaine and other parts of the south of Prance, various caves have been explored, in
which the bones of man and those of various extinct animals were found to co-exist. In some
of these caves, masses of breccia or stalactitic conglomerate, composed of the bones of extinct
carnivora and of man, with fragments of rude pottery and bone implements, were discovered.
M. Desnoyers, in opposition to the views of Marcel de Serres and others, as to the contemporaneous
character of the human and animal remains, has pointed out that the flint hatchets and
arrow-heads, the bone implements and coarse pottery found in various French and English
caves, agree precisely with those found in the tumuli and beneath the cromlechs of the primitive
inhabitants of Gaul and Britaio.; and he infers that they belong to a people in the same stage of
civilization as those who constructed these tumuli and altars. Now, in the tumuli and beneath the
cromlechs referred to, the bones of wfld and domestic animals of existing species, particularly of
Deer, Sheep, "Wild Boars, Dogs, Horses, and Oxen, are often found. But in none of these ancient
monuments, have any bones been met with of the Elephant, Khinoceros, Hyasna, and other
extinct quadrupeds, such as are found in the caves, which might have been expected, had these
species existed contemporaneously with man in Gaul and Britainf. Various other examples
t Desnoyers, Bull, de la Soc. Ge'ol. de France, torn. ii. p. 252.
Lyell, " Principles," p. 739. Dr. Buckland collected several
examples of Ilumau Remains in Caves" ; but he maintained
that " in none of these cases are the bones referable to so high
an era as those of the wild beasts that occur in the caves at
Kirkdftle and elsewhere." " Reliquiee Diluvianie," 1823,
4to. p. 164. See also Buckland's "Bridgewater Treatise,"
p. 105.
* " Cavern Researches. " By the Rev. J. MacEnery,
F.G.S. Torquay and Tor Directory, August 14, 1850. See
D.Wilson, "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," p. 183; and
J ournal of the British Archseological Association, vol. ii. p. 171.
Mr. E. Vivian of Torquay has quite recently ascertained the
existence of the original MS. of the late Mr. MacEnery, which
he produced before the Meeting of the British Assoeiatioii at
Cheltenham, August 18.i6. We may hence anticipate the
pubheation of a more precise account of these researches than
has hitherto appeared.
CHAP. V.] H I S T O M C A L ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 51
of caves containing the remains of man with those of extinct animals have been instanced * ; but
with regard to aU of these, we may safely conclude with Sir Charles LyeU, that " it is not on the
evidence of such intermixtures that we ought readily to admit either the high antiquity of the
human race, or the recent date of certain lost species of quadi-upeds." Nothing in the
facts hitherto adduced leads us to dispute the further conclusion of this distinguished inquii-er,
that " man must be regarded by the geologist as a creature of yesterday, not merely in reference
to the past history of the organic world, but also in relation to that particular state of the
animate creation of which he forms a part t . " The conclusion of the geologist supports
that arrived at by other modes of reasoning. Eor though the modern biblical critic finds no
certaia chronology in Scripture for the earliest times, he finds sufficient in those venerable records
to induce his assent to the inference of the patriarch, that "we are but of yesterday,"
thus expressed by Sir Isaac Newton: "it is clearly apparent that the inhabitants of this
world are of a short date, seeing that aU arts, as letters, ships, printing, needle, &c., were discovered
within the memory of history."
But though geology, as interpreted by its most successful investigators, seems to prove the
comparatively recent origin of man, it no less discloses the fact, that, since his appearance in this
part of Europe, very considerable changes in the surface of the country have oceui-red. Rivers
have been narrowed to inconsiderable streams, extensive lakes have been drained and reclaimed
to the use of man; enormous forests, which covered great part of the country, have either been
cleared by human agency, or, left to the operation of natural causes, have been replaced by
morasses and peat formations, in which both the ancient timber, and the remains of primeval
man and of bis rude implements, are preserved. Whilst in many places a converse change has
been in progress, in others, a very considerable gain of dry land from the sea is proved to have
occurred. Professor Owen has pointed out, as evidence of this, the position in the neighbom-hood
of the Eorth, of the fossil skeletons of Whales, in alluvial deposits, more than twenty feet above
the reach of the highest tide. In the Natural History Museum of the University of Edinburgh,
are the remains of a fossil Whale, dug up in Blair Drummond Moss, at a distance of seven miles
above Stirling Bridge, and fuUy twenty miles from the nearest part of the River Eorth, where
by possibility a whale could now be stranded. Along -with the skeleton, as in two other
instances, was a rude lance or harpoon of deer's horn, which, in this case, retained, some
remains of the wooden handle by which it was wielded; thus affording proof of the changes in
the level of the land and sea, which have occiured since the occupation of this part of Britain by
* Among these, one of the most remarkable is the cave on
the shore of a small lake, Laffoa do Snmidouro, in the province
of Bahia, Brazil, described by Dr. Lund ( " Notice sur
des Ossements Humains Fossiles trouvés dans une Caverne du
Brésil," in the " Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires
du Nord," 1852, p. 49). Dr. Lund's researches are much
insisted upon m the chapter, by William Usher, M.D., "On
Geology and Paloeontology in connexion with Iluman Origins
" ("Types of Mankind," p. 327). The conclusions
arrived at by Dr. Usher will be found altogether at variance
with those of the most eminent geologists and antiquaries. He
attaches great importance, in the evidence he adduces as to
the immense antiquity of man on the earth, to the researches of
M. Boucher de Perthes ( " Antiqmtc's Celtiques et Antediluviennes,"
Paris, 1849). Of these researches we will merely
cite the opinion of the late Dr. Mantell, who observes, " The
author has deteriorated the value of his antiquariaii labours,
by vague and erroneous conclusions, which but a shght acquaintance
with the elements of geology would have enabled
him to avoid; for the mineralogist will perceive at a glance,
that the so-called works of art figured and described by him,
are nothing more than accidental forms of pebbles and stones,
similar to those that occur iu strata of immense antiquity and
which can never have been fashioned by the hand of man." —
Loc. cit. p. 329.
t Lyell, "Principles," p. 740, 182.