The result of these discoveries was the proof that certain extinct animals, such as the woolly rhinoceros and the mammoth, had lived in this country in ancient times, along with two other groups of species which are at present known only to live in hot and cold climates—the spotted hyæna and hippopotamus of Africa, with the reindeer and the marmot of the colder regions of the earth.
The discovery in 1858, and the exploration, of the now famous cave of Brixham, by the Royal and Geological Societies, marked the dawn of a new era in cave-hunting. Under the careful supervision of Mr. Pengelly, flint implements were discovered underneath stalagmite, and in association with the remains of the hyæna and woolly rhinoceros and mammoth, in undisturbed red loam, under conditions that prove man to have been living in Devonshire at the same time as those animals. This singularly opportune discovery destroyed for ever the doubts that had overhung the question of the antiquity of man, and of his co-existence in Europe in company with the animals whose remains occur both in the caverns and river-deposits.
In 1847 M. Boucher de Perthes described certain rude flint implements that he obtained from the fluviatile gravels of Abbeville (“Antiquités Celtiques,” vol. i.), along with the bones of extinct animals; and his discovery was treated with the same scepticism in France as that of the Rev. J. McEnery in England, although it was verified by flint implements being discovered, under exactly the same conditions, in the gravels of Amiens, some forty miles away, by Dr. Rigollot.[11] In the autumn of 1858, Dr. Falconer, who had been superintending the work in the Brixham cave, visited the collection made by M. de Perthes, while on his way to examine the caves of Sicily, and recognizing man’s handiwork in the implements, he asked his friend Mr. Prestwich to explore the Valley of the Somme. This he accordingly did, and in company with Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., dug out with his own hands an implement from the undisturbed strata,[12] and thus finally settled the disputed question. It is undoubtedly true, that scientific opinion was tending towards the acceptance of the evidence in favour of man having lived in Europe in the Pleistocene age; but the researches in Brixham cave established the fact on the highest possible authority, and confirmed the long-neglected discoveries in the valley of the Somme. By the end of 1859 it was fully accepted by the scientific world, and caused the exploration of caves to be carried on with increased vigour.
In December 1859,[13] I began the exploration of the hyæna-den of Wookey Hole, near Wells, Somerset, in company with the Rev. J. Williamson, and obtained flint instruments along with the remains of the mammoth, hyæna, woolly rhinoceros, and other animals, under conditions that proved the contemporaneity of man with the extinct mammalia. And from that time down to the present date I have carried on researches in caves in various parts of Great Britain. In the district of Gower also, many ossiferous caverns were investigated, in 1858–9–60–1 by Colonel Wood and Dr. Falconer, and in one of them flint implements were obtained along with the bones of the extinct mammalia.[14] Kent’s Hole, begun in 1865 by the British Association, and still being worked, furnishes annually a vast number of bones and teeth of hyænas, rhinoceroses, cave-bears, and horses, and other animals, along with flint and bone implements.[15]
In 1869 I had the good fortune to discover, and subsequently to explore, a group of sepulchral caves in Denbighshire, which had been used by an Iberian or Basque race in the Neolithic age (Chapter V.); and in the following year the Settle Cave Committee began their work in Yorkshire under my advice. And this has led to the important conclusion, that a group of caves, extending over a wide area in the centre and north of England, was occupied by the Brit-Welsh in the obscure interval which elapsed between the departure of the Roman legions and the English conquest.
France.—The researches of Buckland into the caves of Great Britain, and of Goldfuss and others into those of Germany, and more especially the publication of the “Ossemens Fossiles,” by Cuvier, gave an impetus to cave-exploration in France which yielded the same results as in our own country. The mammalia obtained from the cave of Fouvent (Haut Saone) in 1800 were described in the “Ossemens,” as well as those from Gondenans. In the Gironde, the Cave of Avison was explored by M. Billaudel in 1826–27. In the south, Marcel de Serres, aided by MM. Dubrueil and Jeanjean, examined the important Cave of Lunel-viel in 1824, and published their results in a work that holds the same position in France as the “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ” in England. The caverns of Pondres, Souvignargues, and of Bize were explored, the two first by M. Christol in 1829, the last by M. Tournal in 1833, and those of Villefranche (Pyrénées-orient), Mialet (Gard), and Nabrigas (Lozère) were described by De Serres in 1839, who subsequently added those of Carcas-sonne to the list in 1842. In this year MM. Prevost and J. Desnoyers explored the caves of Montmorency in the neighbourhood of Paris, and described the remains discovered in those of Bicêtre. The Cave of Pontil (Hérault) described by M. de Serres in 1847, was proved in 1864, by Professor Gervais, to contain two distinct strata, the neolithic lying over the palæolithic, as in Kent’s Hole.[16]
In 1860,[17] the famous Cave of Aurignac was proved, by the investigations of Professor Lartet, to have been inhabited by man in the life-time of the extinct mammalia. Three years later the caves of Périgord were explored by that gentleman, along with Mr. Christy, and yielded results which mark a new era in the history of man in the remote past. From the remarkable collection of implements and weapons, the habits and mode of life of the occupants can be ascertained with tolerable certainty, and from their comparison with the like articles now in use among savage tribes, it may be reasonably inferred that they were closely related in blood to the Eskimos. This most important question will be investigated in its proper place, in the chapter relating to the palæolithic caves of France. Professor Lartet, M. Louis Lartet, Sir Charles Lyell, and other eminent observers believe further, that the interments that have been discovered in Aurignac and in Cro Magnon,[18] in Périgord, are to be assigned to the same relative age as the occupation of the caves by man. From the fact, however, that the skeletons in both these cases were above the strata accumulated by the palæolithic cave-dwellers, it may be concluded that they were deposited after those strata were formed, in other words, that they are of a later age.
From 1863 down to the present time very many caves have been explored in France without any further addition to our knowledge, excepting the verification of the facts, afforded by the caves of Brixham and of Périgord, as to the co-existence of man with the extinct mammalia, and his probable identity in race with the Eskimos.
Belgium.—The caves of Belgium[19] have afforded evidence of precisely the same nature as those of England and France. Dr. Schmerling, of Liège, published the results of his researches, begun in 1829, into the bone-caves on the banks of the Meuse and its tributaries, in 1833–4, and proved that the mammoth, rhinoceros, cave-bear, and hyæna formerly lived in that district. He also arrived at the conclusion that man was living at that remote time, from the discovery of flint-flakes and human bones along with the remains of those animals in the caves of Engis and Engihoul. In 1853,[20] Professor Spring discovered a quantity of burned, broken, and cut bones belonging to women and children, in the Cave of Chauvaux, which he considered to imply that it had been inhabited by a family of cannibals. Axes of polished stone were also met with, that indicated the relative age to be neolithic.
To pass over the human skeleton found in the Neanderthal Cave in 1857 by Dr. Fuhlroth, which is of doubtful antiquity, the next discoveries of importance are those made by M. Dupont in the years 1864–70, in the province of Namur, that established the fact that the same race of men who inhabited Auvergne in the palæolithic age had also lived in Belgium. M. Dupont considers that the interments in the Trou de Frontal[21] belong also to the palæolithic age, and that therefore man at that remote time was possessed of religious ideas. Before, however, this view can be accepted, it will be necessary to show the exact relation of the bones of the reindeer, chamois, mammoth, and other animals found outside the slab of stone, at the mouth of the sepulchral chamber, to the human remains within. In this case, as in Aurignac and Cro Magnon, the evidence seems to me insufficient to establish so important a conclusion.