No one can doubt but that this deposit of cave earth itself requires a prolonged time for its accumulation.8 But this period, however prolonged, at length comes to an end. From some cause, both animals and man again abandoned the cave. Another vast cycle of years rolls away—a time expressed in thousands of years—during which nature again spread over the entombed remains a layer of stalagmite, in some places equal in thickness to the first formation. Above this layer we come to a bed of mold containing remains of the later Stone Age, of the Bronze, and even of the Iron Age. Below the first layer of stalagmite—the completed biography of Paleolithic times; above, the unfinished book of the present. Such are the eloquent results obtained by the thorough exploration of one cave. The results of all the other explorations, in a general way, confirm these. Mr. Dawkins explored a group of caverns in Derbyshire, England. These caverns and fissures are situated in what is known as Cresswell Crags, the precipitous sides of a ravine through which flows a stream of water dividing the counties of Derby and Nottingham.
This cut represents the different strata in Robin Hood cave. It will be seen that, at one place, the stalactite has united with the stalagmite below. It is not necessary to go into the details of this exploration. All the relics of man found in d, c, and the lower portions of b, are the rude and massive forms peculiar to the River Drift tribes. But the relics found in the breccia a, and the upper portion of the cave earth b, denote a sudden advance in culture. The rude tools of the lower strata are replaced by more highly finished ones of flint.
The most important discovery was that of a small fragment of rib, with its polished surface ornamented with the incised figure of a horse. The peculiar value of this discovery is, that it serves to connect the Cave-men of England with those of the continent who, as we shall afterward see, excelled in artistic work of this kind.
In another cave of this series, in association with similar flints, were found the following bone implements. We can only conjecture the use of the notched bone. The pieces of reindeer horn, terminating in a scoop, may have served as a spoon to extract marrow.
We must not fail to notice that the more highly finished relics of the Cave-men are found in strata overlying those of the River Drift; and, in the case of Kent’s Cavern, these two sets of implements are separated by a layer of stalagmite requiring a very prolonged time for its formation. This would imply that the Cave-men came into England long after the tribes of the River Drift; and, judging from the relics themselves, they must have been a distinct people. We must recall how completely the climate and animals in England varied during the Glacial Age. We have also seen how closely connected the River Drift tribes were with the animals of the warm temperate regions. Coming at a later date, totally distinct from them in culture are those Cave-men—perhaps they may prove to be associated with the Arctic animals. But, before speculating on this point, we must learn the results attending the exploration of the caves of Belgium, France, and other countries on the continent of Europe.