Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/53

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DISCOVERIES IN BRITAIN
45

and a scientific committee appointed by the British Association. The work was begun in March 1865, and continued without interruption till June 1880, at an expense of £1963.

The industrial remains found in Kent's Cavern, below the bed of stalagmite, calculated to throw light on the culture and civilization of its inhabitants, were made of stone, bone, and horn (probably that of the reindeer), and may be thus briefly described. Among objects made of stone were tongue-shaped, oval and triangular tools of flint and chert; worked flakes, scrapers and cores of flint; also a few hammer-stones, one of which was shaped like a cheese. Of bone, or horn, there were pins, awls, barbed harpoons, and a neatly formed needle, precisely similar to analogous objects found in the rock-shelter of La Madeleine (France). From the style of workmanship and form of these relics, especially the harpoons and needle, there can be no doubt that their original owners were contemporary with the late Palæolithic inhabitants of the caves of the Dordogne. On the other hand, the tongue-shaped implements (coup-de-poing) were found in a lower stratum, thus indicating an earlier date of occupancy, probably the Moustérien epoch.

Among the fauna represented in Kent's Cavern were mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, reindeer, lion, bear, hyæna, Irish elk, horse, urus (wild ox), etc. But perhaps the most interesting among the extinct animals