Chapter XXII: Cave Implements (3)

The next British cavern which I have to mention is one of the series in the Peninsula of Gower, in Glamorganshire, explored by Colonel Wood and the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, F.R.S. The cave in question was discovered in 1861, and is known as Long Hole.[2444] It is about one mile east of the well-known Paviland Caves, and is about 130 feet above ordinary high-water mark. It penetrates the limestone rock to a distance of about 44 feet, and when discovered did not exceed in its greatest dimensions 12 feet in width, and 7 feet in height.

There was a deposit of about 7 feet of ferruginous, unctuous cave-earth, mixed with angular fragments of limestone rock, forming the floor, which was in part, if not wholly, of stalagmite. The fossil remains found in the cave included _Ursus spelæus_, _Hyæna spelæa_, _Felis spelæa_, _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_ and _tichorhinus_, _Elephas antiquus_ and _primigenius_, _Bison priscus_ and _Cervus tarandus_. Flint implements, unquestionably of human manufacture, were found along with these remains; and one very fine flint “arrow-head,” as termed by Dr. Falconer,[2445] was found at a depth of 4 1∕2 feet in the cave-earth, contiguous to a detached shell of a milk molar of _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, and at the same depth. Other flint implements were found at a depth of 3 feet below the stalagmite, associated with remains of _Cervus Guettardi_, a variety of reindeer. Sir Charles Lyell[2446] has remarked that this is the first well-authenticated example of the occurrence of _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_ in connection with human implements. Dr. Falconer has also recognized the same species, in the fragment of an upper milk molar, discovered in the Wookey Hole Hyæna Den by Prof. Boyd Dawkins.

I have had an opportunity of examining casts of the worked flints from Long Hole, in the Christy Collection, and find them to |521| consist exclusively of flakes, some of them well and symmetrically formed, and exhibiting on their edges the marks arising from use.

In some of the other caverns in the same district, Prof. Boyd Dawkins has also discovered flint flakes associated with the remains of a similar group of animals. The Oyle Cave,[2447] Tenby, and Hoyle’s Mouth,[2448] have also afforded flint flakes associated with the remains of a nearly similar fauna.

In the Coygan Cave,[2449] Carmarthenshire, Mr. Laws, of Tenby, found two flint flakes with remains of mammoth and rhinoceros below a foot of stalagmite. In the Ffynnon Beunos Cave,[2450] Dr. H. Hicks, F.R.S., found several worked flints (one like Fig. 390) with bones of Pleistocene animals below a stalagmite breccia, and in the Cae Gwyn Cave[2451] a long scraper with bones of rhinoceros. A flint flake[2452] was found under Drift outside the covered entrance to the cave. Dr. Hicks regards these caves as Pre-Glacial, a view in which I cannot agree.

In the Pont Newydd Cave[2453] near Cefn, Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.R.S., found, with plentiful remains of the Pleistocene fauna, including _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, a number of implements of distinctly palæolithic forms made of felstone and chert, as well as one of flint. This cave can be proved to be Post-Glacial.

Another cave which may be mentioned is that known as King Arthur’s Cave, near Whitchurch, Ross, which was explored by the late Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S., of Pendock.[2454] In this instance flint flakes, and cores formed of chert were found in the cave-earth, with bones and teeth of the usual mammals, in one part of the cavern; while in another, beneath a thick layer of stalagmite, itself covered by what appeared to be a portion of an old river-bed, flint flakes were found associated with the same fauna. Mr. Symonds assigns these fluviatile deposits to an ancient river now represented by the Wye, which flows 300 feet below the level of the cave. If this view be correct, there can, as he observes, hardly be better authenticated evidence of the antiquity of man in the records of cave-history, than that afforded by |522| this old river-bed overlying the thick stalagmite, beneath which the human relics were sealed up.

Since this book first appeared several important and interesting discoveries have been made in British Caves between Chesterfield and Worksop. Perhaps the most remarkable are those made in Creswell Crags on the north-eastern border of Derbyshire, by the Rev. J. Magens Mello,[2455] and Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.,[2456] who commenced their labours in the year 1875. The ossiferous deposits, in which also traces of man were found, lay both in fissures and in caves in the Lower Magnesian Limestone. Those which yielded the most important stone implements were the Robin Hood and the Church Hole Caves, though Mother Grundy’s Parlour also contributed a few. In the Robin Hood Cave a stalagmitic breccia lay above the cave-earth. In this were found implements of quartzite and iron-stone, eighty-six in number, ruder than those of flint in the breccia. By the kindness of the Council of the Geological Society I am able to give a few representations of those of both classes. Fig. 413A shows an implement formed from a quartzite pebble worked at the point and side and of a distinctly Palæolithic type. It is much like the specimen from Saltley, Fig. 450B, and some made of similar material found in the neighbourhood of Toulouse.

Fig. 413B is of iron-stone, and so far as form is concerned might well have been found in a bed of old River-drift. Some hammer-stones and a side chopper of quartzite, in form like Fig. 443, were also found in the cave-earth. Some flint tools from the breccia are shown in the next three figures. Fig. 413C recalls one of the blades from Kent’s Cavern, Fig. 390, though of |523| smaller dimensions. Fig. 413D is almost identical with Fig. 399, while the borer, Fig. 413E, resembles those of the Neolithic Period. In all, there were found in the Robin Hood Cave no less than 1040 pieces of stone and bone showing traces of human workmanship. Among the bone objects were an awl and numerous pointed antler-tips, but the most remarkable is a smooth and rounded fragment of a rib having the head and forepart of a horse incised upon it. It is shown in Fig. 413F. In the Church Hole Cave 213 relics of human workmanship were found, principally flakes of flint, splinters, and quartzite stones. Two of the flakes, one of which is shown in Fig. 413G, are worn away on one edge only, as if the other edge had been protected by a wooden handle as suggested in the sketch.

Among the bone objects was an oval plate notched at the sides and a bone needle, Fig. 413H. It is of larger size than is usual in caves of this period. |524|

The fauna comprised cave-lion, hyæna, bear, Irish elk, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoth. A fine upper canine of _Machairodus_ was also found. Most of the objects described are now in the British Museum. We have here another instance of quartzite implements of Palæolithic type, being found well to the north of the area in which drift-implements are usually discovered.

The relics found in the Victoria Cave[2457] at Settle belong to a later period than that of which I am treating.

A cave at Ballynamintra,[2458] Co. Waterford, is Neolithic.

The Mentone caves would open so large a field for discussion that I content myself with a passing reference to them.

Were no other evidence forthcoming, the results of an examination of the British caves already described would justify us in concluding that in this country man co-existed with a number of the larger mammals now for the most part absolutely extinct, while others have long since disappeared from this portion of the globe. The association, under slightly differing circumstances, |525| and in several distinct cases, of objects of human industry with the remains of this extinct fauna, in which so many of the animals characteristic of the existing fauna are “conspicuous by their absence,” in undisturbed beds, and for the most part beneath a thick coating of stalagmite, leads of necessity to this conclusion. This becomes, if possible, more secure when the results of the exploration of other caves on the Continent of Western Europe are taken into account. How long a period may have intervened between the extinction, or migration, of these animals and the present time is, of course, another question; but such changes in the animal world as had already taken place at least three thousand years ago, do not appear to occur either suddenly or even with great rapidity; and, leaving the stalagmite out of consideration, we have already seen that in some instances the physical configuration of the country in the immediate neighbourhood of the caves seems to have been greatly changed since the period of their infilling.

These changes are perhaps more conclusively illustrated in the case of the old river deposits, in which the remains of the same extinct fauna as that of the caves occur associated with implements manufactured by the hand of man, to which we must now direct our attention.

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