Let us see what general results have been reached by this committee. The investigation disclosed several different beds of stalagmite, cave earth, and breccia. The lowest layer is a breccia.4 The matrix is sand of a reddish color, containing many pieces of rock known as red-grit and some pieces of quartz. This implies the presence of running water, which at times washed in pieces of red-grit. The surface features must have been quite different from the present, since now this rock does not form any part of the hill into which this cave opens.5And this change in drainage took place before this lowest layer was completed, since not only bears, but men, commenced to visit the cave. The presence of bears is shown by numerous bones, and that of man by his implements.
We must notice that all the implements found in the breccia are similar to those of the Drift, being rudely formed and massive. No doubt these are the remains of Drift men, who, for some cause or other, temporarily visited the cave, perhaps contending with the cave bear for its possession. But a time at length arrived when for some reason neither animals nor man visited the cave. The slow accumulation of stalagmite went forward until in some places it had obtained a thickness of twelve feet. Freely admitting that we can not determine the length of time demanded for this deposition, yet none can doubt that it requires a very long time indeed. Says Mr. Geikie: “How many centuries rolled past while that old pavement was slowly accreting, no one can say; but that it represents a lapse of ages compared to which the time embraced by all tradition and written history is but as a few months, who that is competent to form an opinion can doubt?” But after this long period of quiet, from some source great torrents of water came rolling through the cave. We know this to be so, because in places it broke up this layer of stalagmite and washed it away, as well as large portions of the breccia below, and after the floods had ceased, occasionally inundations still threw down layers of mud and silt. This accumulation is known as cave earth, and is the layer containing the numerous remains of the Cave-men. Here the explorers were not only struck with the large number of implements, but at once noticed that they were of a higher form and better made. Instead of the rude and massive implements of the Drift tribes, we have more delicate forms chipped all around. And we also meet with those that from their form may have been used as the heads of spears or arrows. Flakes were also utilized for various purposes. We also find implements, weapons, and ornaments of bone—a step in advance of Drift culture. They had “harpoons for spearing fish, eyed needles or bodkins for stitching skins together, awls perhaps to facilitate the passage of the slender needle through the tough, thick hides; pins for fastening the skins they wore, and perforated badgers’ teeth for necklaces or bracelets.”6 Nothing of this kind has yet been shown as belonging to the men of the Drift.
The bones of a large number of animals are also found in the cave earth. The most abundant is the hyena, and no doubt they dragged in a great many others; but the agency of man is equally apparent, as the bones have often been split for the extraction of marrow. Besides bones of the hyena, we have also those of the lion, tiger, bear, and reindeer.7
With these animals man, from time to time, disputed possession of the cave. At one place on the surface of the cave earth is found what is known as the “black band.” This is nothing more or less than the fire-place of these old tribes. Here we find fragments of partially consumed wood, bones showing the action of fire—in short, every thing indicating a prolonged occupancy by man.