Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/225

] crystalline stalagmite, in some places nearly 12 feet thick, "formed after the materials of the breccia were deposited, but before the introduction of the cave-earth commenced. After the stalagmite just mentioned, it was in extensive parts of the cavern broken up by some natural agency, and much of the latter, if not of both, was dislodged and carried out of the cavern before the first instalment of cave-earth was deposited." We may therefore conclude that the interval was long enough to allow of great physical changes in the district, by which the contents of the caverns were afiected. An implement of the River-drift type, similar to Fig. 61, has been discovered in the famous cave at Brixham, explored also under the superintendence of Mr. Pengelly. And it may most probably be referred to the same early stage as those from the breccia in Kent's Hole.

From these observations it is evident that the River-drift men inhabited the caves of Devonshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire, in an early stage of the history of caverns, and that after an interval, to be measured in Kent's Hole by the above-mentioned physical changes, the Cave-men found shelter in the same places. The former also followed the chase in the valley of the Elwy and the vale of Clwydd in North Wales, and the latter found ample food in the numerous reindeer, horses, and bisons then wandering over the plains extending from the Mendip Hills to the Quantocks, and the low fertile