The exploration of caves is rapidly becoming an important field of inquiry, and their contributions to our knowledge of the early history of the sojourn of men in Europe are daily increasing in value and in number. Since the year 1823, when Dr. Buckland published his famous work, the “ReliquiÆ DiluvianÆ,” no attempt has been made to correlate, and bring into the compass of one work, the crude mass of facts which have been recorded in nearly every country in Europe. In this volume I have attempted to bring the history of cave-exploration down to the knowledge of to-day, and to put its main conclusions before my readers in one connected and continuous narrative. Since Dr. Buckland wrote, the momentous discovery of human relics along with the extinct animals in caves and river deposits has revolutionised the current ideas as to the antiquity and condition of man; and works of art of a high order, showing a familiarity with nature and an aptitude for the delineation of the forms of animals by no means despicable, have been discovered in the caves of Britain, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, that were the dwellings of the primeval European hunters of reindeer and mammoths. The discoveries in Kent’s Hole and in the caves of Belgium led to those in the caves of Brixham and Wookey Hole, and finally to those of Auvergne and the south of France, as well as of Germany and Switzerland.

ArchÆology, also, by the use of strictly inductive methods, has grown from a mere antiquarian speculation into a science; and its students have proved the truth of the three divisions of human progress familiar to the Greek and Roman philosopher, and expressed in the pages of Hesiod and Lucretius—the Ages of Stone, Bronze and Iron. The subdivision of the first of these into the older, or palÆolithic, and newer, or neolithic, by Sir John Lubbock, is the only refinement which has been made in this classification. Sir Charles Lyell has discussed the various problems offered by the general consideration of the first of these divisions in “The Antiquity of Man;” while Sir John Lubbock, in “Prehistoric Man,” has followed Dr. Keller and others in working out the past history of mankind by a comparison of the habitations, tombs, implements and weapons found in Europe, with those of modern savages. This work is intended to be to a considerable extent supplementary to theirs,—to treat of the formation of caves, and of the light thrown by their contents on the sojourn of man in Europe, on the wild animals, and on the changes in climate and geography.

In treating of the caves of the historic period, I have given considerable prominence to the exploration of the Victoria Cave, near Settle, which has led to the discovery that many caverns were inhabited in this country during the fifth and sixth centuries, and that they contain works of art of a high order. In the difficult task of bringing them into relation with British history and art, I have to acknowledge the kind assistance of Mr. E.A. Freeman, the Rev. J.R. Green, and Mr. A.W. Franks. In the neolithic division of the prehistoric period, I have published at length my recent discoveries in the sepulchral caves of Denbighshire, and am allowed by my friend, Professor Busk, to reprint his description of the human bones. To his suggestive essay on the Gibraltar caves, as well as to the works of the late Dr. Thurnam, and of Professors Broca and Huxley, I am indebted for the clue to the identification of the neolithic dwellers in caves with the ancient Iberians or Modern Basques. That portion of the evidence which relates to France I have verified by a personal examination of the human remains from caves and tombs in the Museums of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyons and Paris.

The results of the exploration of the HyÆna-den of Wookey Hole have been given in greater detail in the portion of the work devoted to the palÆolithic age than they would have been, had they been before fully recorded. And in this division of the subject I have largely made use of the “ReliquiÆ AquitanicÆ,” which embodies the discoveries in Auvergne of my late friends Professor E. Lartet and Mr. Christy. To the editors of that work I am indebted for permission to use some of the plates and letterpress.

The history of the pleistocene mammalia, in which palÆolithic man forms the central figure, has been my especial study for many years. And the evidence which is offered by the animals as to the geography and climate of Europe, which I have published from time to time in the works of the PalÆontographical Society, the Geological Journal, and in the Popular Science, British Quarterly, and Edinburgh Reviews, is collected together in this work, and brought into relation with the inquiry into the extension of ice over Europe in the glacial period, and into the soundings of the European seas. In approaching these and the like problems, I have done my best to arrive at the truth by visiting as far as possible the foreign localities and collections, and by correspondence with the discoverers of new facts.

In addition to those names which I have already mentioned, I have to express my thanks to the Councils of the Society of Antiquaries, the Geological Society, and of the Anthropological Institute and to Mr. John Evans, for the use of woodcuts; to Mr. Rooke Pennington for looking over some of the proof sheets; and to Professors Gaudry, RÜtimeyer, Lortet, Nilsson, and SteenstrÜp, and the Rev. Canon Greenwell for aid of various kinds. But especially do I feel grateful to my old friend and master, the late lamented Professor Phillips, for frequent help and prudent counsel.

In laying this book before my readers I would merely further remark, that it is a faint outline of a new and vast field of research, in which I have attempted to give prominence to the more important points, rather than a finished and detailed history of cave-exploration.

W.B.D.

The Owens College, Manchester,
20th July, 1874.