Fig. 95.—Diagram of Deposits in Brixham Cave. (Pengelly.)
(B.) Reddish cave-earth with fragments and blocks of limestone, and of stalagmite, generally averaging from two to four feet. In it 1,102 bones were discovered irregularly scattered through its mass, and belonging to mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, lion, cave, grizzly, and brown bears, reindeer, and others. They varied in state of preservation, and some were scored and marked by teeth. Associated with these, thirty-six rude flint implements were met with, of indisputable human workmanship, and of the same general order as those figured by the Rev. J. MacEnery from Kent’s Hole. Among them was one lanceolate implement with rounded point and unworked butt end, considered by Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., of the type of those usually found in the valley gravels.[205] There was, therefore, the most conclusive evidence that man inhabited the neighbourhood, either before or during the time of the accumulation of B, and before those physical changes took place by which the red silt ceased to be deposited, or the stalagmite above began to be formed.
(C.) At the bottom of the cave-earth was a deposit of gravel, principally of rounded pebbles and devoid of fossils.
The early history of the cave, as shown by these deposits, is given by Mr. Prestwich, in the report presented to the Royal Society, as follows:—
“Looking at all the phenomena of Brixham cave, the conclusion your reporter has arrived at is, that the formation of the cave commenced and was carried on simultaneously with the excavation of the valley; that the small streams flowing down the upper tributary branches of the valley entered the western openings of the cave and, traversing the fissures in the limestone, escaped by lower openings in the chief valley, just as the Grotto d’Arcy was formed by an overflow from the cave taking a short cut through the limestone hills, round which the river winds. These tributary streams brought in the shingle bed ([Fig. 95], C), which fills the bottom of the fissure. It was only during occasional droughts, when the streams were dry, that the cave seems to have been frequented by animals, their remains being very scarce in that bed, while indications of man are comparatively numerous. As the excavation of the valley proceeded, the level of the stream was lowered and became more restricted to the valley-channel. The cave consequently became drier, and was more resorted to by predatory animals, who carried in their prey to devour, and was less frequented by man. At the same time with the periodical floods, which there is every reason to believe, from other investigations, were so great during the quaternary period, the cave would long continue to be subject to inundations, the muddy waters of which deposited the silt forming the cave-earth, burying progressively the bones left from season to season by succeeding generations of beasts of prey. By the repetition at distant intervals of these inundations, and by the accumulation during the intervening periods of fresh crops of bones, the bone-bearing cave-earth, B, was gradually formed. During this time the occasional visits of man are indicated by the rare occurrence of a flint implement, lost, probably, as he groped his way through the dark passages of the cave. As the valley became deeper, and as with the change of climate at the close of the (pleistocene) quaternary period the floods became less, so did the cave become drier and more resorted to by animals. At last it seems to have become a place for permanent resort for bears; their remains in all stages of growth, including even sucking cubs, were met with in the upper part of the cave-earth, in greater numbers than were the bones of any other animals. These animals resorted especially to the darker and more secluded flint-knife gallery, where 221 out of 366 of their determinable bones were found, whereas only twenty-six were met with in the reindeer gallery.
“Finally, as the cave became out of the reach of the flood waters, the drippings from the roof, which up to this period had, with the single exception before mentioned, been lost in the accumulating cave-earth, or deposited in thin calcareous incrustations on the exposed bones, now commenced that deposit of stalagmite which sealed up and preserved undisturbed the shingle and cave-earth deposited under former and different conditions. The cave, however, still continued to be the occasional resort of beasts of prey; for sparse remains of the reindeer, together with those of the bear and rhinoceros, were found in the stalagmite floor. After a time the falling in of the roof at places (and any earthquake movement may have detached blocks from it), and the external surface weathering, stopped up some parts of the cave, and closed its entrances with an accumulation of débris. From that time it ceased to be accessible, except to the smaller rodents and burrowing animals, and so remained unused and untrodden until its recent discovery and exploration.”[206]
Mr. Pengelly points out[207] an episode in the history of the cave, between the formation and the filling up with its present contents, which is of considerable importance, viewed in relation to the deposits in Kent’s Hole. Over the empty space in D, of [Fig. 95], is an ancient stalagmite floor, E, constituting the present ceiling, and shutting off D from the true roof above, E. At the time this was formed, the cave must have been filled up to that level with débris, fragments of which are set in the inferior portion of the calcareous sheet. Subsequently, and before the present contents, A and B, were introduced, the whole of this material has been swept away, probably by an unusual flood similar to that alluded to in the [second] chapter in the Clapham cave. The pieces of stalagmite in the cave-earth are, probably, some of the relics of the older floor. This filling up, re-excavating, and re-filling with its present contents, are phenomena which considerably complicate the problems offered not merely by Brixham cave, but also by those of Kent’s Hole.
Two other caverns in the neighbourhood of Brixham, the “Ash Hole” and “Bench,” have also yielded the remains of the reindeer, hyæna, and several other pleistocene species, and are fully described by Mr. Pengelly, in his essays contributed to the Devonshire Association.[208]