Throughout the entire depth yet excavated the cave-earth contained bones of recent and extinct mammals and birds—chiefly the former; fecal matter almost exclusively finely comminuted bone; coprolites, ovate and lanceolate flint implements, and flint chips; two bone "harpoons;" a bone pin; small pieces of burned bone: "whetstones," and a stone hammer. or crusher. The bones are very abundant; most of them are of an almost chalk-like whiteness, whilst a few are discolored; many are merely small splin ters; a considerable number have been fractured, and gnawed precisely after the manner of modern hyenas; several are split longitudinally, in such a way as to betoken human agency, and as if to furnish laths of bone for tools; those immediately under heavy blocks of limestone are crushed; they are all characterized by a specific gravity greater than that of those found above the stalagmite; on the tongue being applied to them, they all adhere to it; in no instance have the elements of an entire skeleton, or anything approaching to it, been found together; and remains of many different kinds. of animals are often lying in contact. Certain branches of the cavern appear to be richer than others in bones; but wherever the cave earth occurs, with its usual accom paniment of limestone fragments, they may be expected in average abundance, irre spective of depth below the stalagmite. The bone "harpoons" and pin have the same chemical condition as the bones—they both adhere firmly to the tongue. The "whet stones" are long narrow pieces of greenish grit, and are similar in form and material4 to those found in the Bruniquel caves in France. The " stone hammer" is a small ellipsoidal pebble of coarse, hard, red sandstone. According to a report furnished by Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Sanford, in 1869, the following species of mammals occur in the cave-earth: cave-lion, a felis of the size of lynx, wild-cat, cave hyena, wolf, fox, can& vulpes var. simians, cads of the size of isatis, glutton, badger, cave-bear, grizzly bear, brown bear, mammoth, rhinoceros tkhorhinus, horse, urns or wild bull, bison, "Irish elk," red-deer, reindeer, hare, cave-pika, water-vole, field-vole, bank-vole, arvicola gulielmi, and beaver; and in 1873 Mr. Pengelly added machairodus latidens. More recent research up till 1879 has revealed additional specimens of animal remains, a repetition of those already discovered. In the chamber called the cave of inscriptions, there are initials and dates graved on the stalagmite, 1609 being the oldest, and 1792 the most modern. But the most ancient inscription is that in the bear's den: "William
Petre, 1571," which has been associated with a person of this name living at that period.
The animal remains found in the crystalline stalagmite and the breccia beneath are exclusively those of bear. There is no trace of the hyena, the most prevalent species of the cave-earth, and these lower deposits belong apparently to an era earlier than that of his arrival in Britain. But here, too, there are flint implements. They resemble those of the cave-earth in being without a trace of polish, but are less symmetrical in form.
From the crushed character of the bones immediately beneath blocks of limestone, It may be inferred that the cave-earth, on which they lay, was firm, unyielding, and capable of offering a resistance to the huge blocks as they fell from the roof; and hence it may be concluded, also, that the flint-tools did not, • as Mantell and others supposed, by sinking through the red earth, reach a depth greater than that which they primarily occupied.
Whilst it is possible that objects belonging to different eras may be commingled in the cave-earth, it is certain that the most modern thing it contains is more ancient than the oldest article in the stalagmite formed on it; and as human tools have been found in the cave-earth, and bones of extinct mammals in the stalagmite, the contemporaneity of man with these extinct forms may be regarded as certainly established.
It is no doubt true that a very large amount of labor has been expended on Kent's cavern without the discovery of any portion of thb human skeleton in the cave-earth. The fact is one of considerable interest, but it does not warrant a doubt respecting man's existence, especially in the presence of such positive facts as bone-tools and burned bones, to say nothing of the flint implements. Moreover, the stalagmite floor, with its extinct mammals, has yielded a portion of man's osseous system—part of an upper jaw, containing four teeth. In their reports the exploring committee remark that, amongst other results of their investigation, so many instances of the valuelessness of merely negative evidence have presented themselves, as to encourage the hope that remains of man, though probably in but sparing numbers, may yet be found in the cave-earth.