results we hoped for, and it was not till we had dug to a depth of about 39 inches that we found the slightest trace of animal bones; but amongst those we then discovered were some very large horse's teeth. After continuous work for about three hours we returned home with a rich store of bones, still uncertain whether our labour had been bestowed simply on a bone cave or on a human habitation. This uncertainty was naturally not agreeable to us, and we continued our excavations still deeper, and then we discovered some few flint-flakes, and also the first reindeer-horn, which, on a close examination, bore undoubted marks of having been worked. Thus it was proved beyond a doubt that the Kesslerloch had been inhabited in prehistoric times. It may be imagined that our delight at this discovery was not small; and thus, in order, on the one hand, to make it perfectly certain, and, on the other, to keep away all foreign elements from the excavation, we secured from the owner of the Kesslerloch, for a sum of money by no means inconsiderable, the right of carrying on excavations in the cave exactly in the manner we pleased.
The regular systematic excavations began on February 19, 1874, and with little interruption continued till April 11—in other words fully seven weeks; and on the average five men were at work the whole time: all of them without exception worked most diligently. It seems only right that I should here mention the intelligent and untiring labours of Mr. Schenk von Eschenz, of the Canton Thurgau, who in a most disinterested manner gave himself up to the investigation, and has earned our most heartfelt thanks for his valuable services.
The Natural History Society of Schaffhausen, by its courteous and valuable assistance, and more especially by the great trouble taken by the President, Dr. von Mandach, enabled us to push the work on more quickly, and to carry it on in a more systematic manner; and this Society also undertook all the cost of the excavation; so that we may venture positively to affirm that the cave has been excavated most completely, and in a highly satisfactory manner.
It received the name of Kesslerloch, as I have been informed, from its having been the abode about fifty years ago of a family of tinkers or wandering smiths.[1]
- ↑ The word 'Kesslerloch,' strictly translated, would be the 'tinker's cave' or 'hole;' but as the name has to be repeatedly used in the course of the following pages it seems better—or at any rate it sounds better—to retain the German word 'Kesslerloch.'
