The three Classes of Bone-caves.
In the biological branch of the subject the caves will be treated first which are comprehended within the limits of history; then we shall pass on to the investigation of Prehistoric caves, or those which have been inhabited in the interval that separates history from the remote geological era, which is characterized by the existence of the extinct mammalia in Europe. And, lastly, those will be examined which have furnished the remains of the extinct animals, and which are termed by the geologists Pleistocene, from the fact that a larger percentage of existing species were then living than in the preceding Pleio-, Meio-, and Eocene periods. The equivalent terms “Quaternary,” used by many French geologists, and the “Post-pleiocene division of the Post-tertiary Formation,” used by Sir Charles Lyell, are not adopted in this work, because they imply a break in the continuity of life, which does not exist. “Pleistocene” was invented and subsequently discarded by Sir C. Lyell,[3] and is at present used by many eminent writers, such as Forbes, Phillips, Gervais, and others. The ossiferous caves will therefore be divided into the Historic, Prehistoric, and Pleistocene groups. And it will be more convenient to work backwards in time from the basis offered by history, than to begin with the Pleistocene, or oldest division, and bring the narrative down to the present day.
This classification, founded in part on the principle of change in the animal world, and partly on the basis offered by history, coincides, only in part, with that of the archæologists based on the remains of man’s handiwork. The Pleistocene age is the equivalent of the Palæolithic, or that of rude unpolished stone; the Prehistoric represents the ages of polished stone, bronze, and iron in part, or those stages in human progress when the use of these materials became general for the purposes of every-day life; while the Historic covers merely the later portion of that of iron.
History of Cave-Exploration in Europe.
Germany.—The rest of this chapter must be devoted to an outline of the history of cave-exploration during the last two centuries. The dread of the supernatural, which preserved the European caves from disturbance, was destroyed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the search after “ebur fossile,” or unicorn’s horn, which ranked high in the materia medica of those days as a specific for many diseases, and which was obtained, in great abundance, in the caverns of the Hartz, and in those of Hungary and Franconia. As the true nature of the drug gradually revealed itself, the German caves became famous for the remains of the lions, hyænas, fossil elephants, and other strange animals, which had been used for medicine. We owe the first philosophical discussion on the point to Dr. Gesner,[4] who, although he maintained that the fossil unicorn consisted, in some cases, of elephant’s teeth and tusks, and in others of its fossil bones, did not altogether give up the idea of its medicinal value. It is a singular fact, that fossil remains of a similar kind are, at the present time, used by the Chinese for the same purpose, and sold in their druggists’ shops.[5] The cave which was most famous at the end of the seventeenth century was that of Bauman’s Hole, in the Hartz, in the district of Blankenbourg. It is noticed in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1662, and was subsequently described by Dr. Behrens,[6] Leibnitz, De Luc, and Cuvier, along with others in the neighbourhood. Those of Hungary come next in point of discovery, the first notice of them being due to Patterson Hayne in 1672. They penetrate the southern slopes of the Carpathian ranges, and are known by the name of dragons’ caves, because the bones which they contain had been considered from time immemorial to belong to those animals by the country people. These remains were identified by Baron Cuvier as belonging to the cave-bear.[7]
It was not, however, until the close of the eighteenth century that the exploring of caves was carried on systematically, or their contents examined with any scientific precision. The caves of Franconia, in the neighbourhood of Muggendorf, were described by Esper in 1774, by Rosenmuller in 1804, and six years later by Dr. Goldfuss. The most important was that of Gailenreuth, both from the vast quantity of remains which it was proved to contain, and the investigations to which it led. The bones of the hyæna, lion, wolf, fox, glutton, and red deer were identified by Baron Cuvier; while some of the skulls which Dr. Goldfuss obtained have been recently proved, by Professor Busk, to belong to the grizzly bear. They were associated with the bones of the reindeer, horse and bison. Rosenmuller was of opinion that the cave had been inhabited by bears for a long series of generations; and he thus realized that these remains proved that the animals found in the cave had once lived in that district, and had not been swept from the tropics by the deluge. The interest in these discoveries was at its height in the year 1816, when Dr. Buckland visited the cave, and acquired that knowledge of cave-exploring which he was subsequently to use with such good effect in this country.[8] From this time down to the present day, no new fact of importance has been added to our knowledge of caves by explorations in Germany.
Great Britain.—The first bone-cave systematically explored in this country was that discovered by Mr. Whidbey,[9] in the Devonian limestone at Oreston, near Plymouth, in 1816; and the remains obtained from it were identified by Sir Everard Home as implying the existence of the rhinoceros in that region. This discovery followed close upon the researches in Gailenreuth, and was due in some degree to the request which Sir Joseph Banks made, that Mr. Whidbey, in quarrying the stone for the Plymouth breakwater, should examine the contents of any caverns that he might happen to meet with. It preceded Dr. Buckland’s exploration of Kirkdale by about four years.
In the summer of 1821 a cave was discovered, in a limestone quarry at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, which was found to contain bones and teeth of animals. On hearing of the discovery, Dr. Buckland posted at once from South Wales to the spot, and published the result of the explorations in the Philosophical Transactions for the next year. He brought forward evidence that the cave had been inhabited by hyænas, and that the broken and gnawed bones of the rhinoceros, mammoth, stag, bison, and horse belonged to animals which had been dragged in for food. He also established the fact that all these animals had lived in Yorkshire in ancient times, and that it was impossible for the carcases of the hyæna, rhinoceros, and mammoth to have been floated from those regions where they are now living into the position where he found their bones. He subsequently followed up the subject by investigating bone-caves in Derbyshire, South Wales, and Somerset, as well as in Germany, and published his great work, “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ,” in 1822, which laid the foundations of the new science of cave-hunting in this country. The exploration of Kirkdale followed closely upon that of Gailenreuth, and was merely the application of those principles of research which had been discovered in Germany to caves in a new district.
From this time forward bone-caves were discovered in Great Britain in increasing numbers, and explored by many independent observers. The famous cavern of Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, furnished the Rev. J. McEnery, between 1825 and the year 1841, in which he died, with the first flint implements ever discovered in a cave along with the bones of extinct animals. He recognized the fact that they may be proof of the existence of man during the time that those animals were alive; but the scientific world was not then sufficiently educated to accept the antiquity of the human race on the evidence brought forward, and Dr. Buckland himself was so influenced by the opinions of his times, that he refused even to entertain the idea. Although the discovery was verified by the independent researches of Mr. Godwin Austin in 1840, and by the Torquay Natural History Society in 1846, the force of prejudice was so strong, that the matter was not thought even worthy of investigation. Mr. McEnery’s manuscripts were lost until the year 1859, when an abstract of them was published by Mr. Vivian, and subsequently they were printed in full by Mr. Pengelly, the able superintendent of the exploration which has been carried on by a committee of the British Association since 1865, by whom several thousand flint implements have been obtained, under the conditions pointed out by the Rev. J. McEnery and Mr. Godwin Austen.[10]
While the important question of the antiquity of man was being passed by as of no account, other caves were being examined in this country. Those of Banwell, Burrington, Sandford Hill, Bleadon, and Hutton, in the mountain limestone of the Mendip hills, were being worked by the Rev. J. Williams and Mr. Beard, and furnished the magnificent collection of mammalian bones now in the museum at Taunton. In North Wales, also, Mr. Lloyd discovered a similar suite of bones in the limestone caves in the neighbourhood of St. Asaph at Cefn, and in South Wales numerous remains were obtained by many explorers in those of Pembrokeshire and Gower.