172 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



fissures in the Devonian limestone of Plymoutli and 

 Torquay, which liave yielded so many bones of mam- 

 malia, and not a few of the implements fashioned liy 

 man. 



Plymouth can boast of possessing the first bone- 

 cave that was systematically explored in this country. 

 So early as 1816 Mr. Whidbey, an engineer, dis- 

 covered bones and teeth in a loamy deposit which he 

 met with in fissures of the limestone at Oreston, and 

 one of these belonged to the Rhinoceros megarhinus. 

 Among other remains found there are the Cave Bear, 

 Cave Lion, Grizzly Bear, Hycena, Horse, Bison, &c. 

 Remains of Rhinoceros and Hy;:ena were twenty years 

 later (1835-6) discovered by Mr. Bellamy and Col. 

 Mudge in a cavernous fissure of the limestone at 

 Yealmpton.* 



By far the most important reseai-ches have been 

 carried on more recently at Brixham and Torquay. 

 The cave at Brixham was first discovered in 1858, 

 and it was entirely explored by a scientific committee 

 appointed for tlie purpose. Of this committee Dr. 

 Falconer and Mr. Prestwich were leading members, 

 and the latter has prepared an ample report. Upon 

 Mr. Pengelly, however, ^\dlo ^^•as enabled to under- 

 take active personal superintendence, the chief work 

 devolved, and he has also furnished us with an inter- 

 esting account of the cave. Amongst the remains 

 obtained are the Mammoth, Tichorine Rhinoceros, 

 Reindeer, Cave Lion, Cave Hyi^na, Cave Bear, 

 Brown Bear, Grizzly Bear, &c. ; .and associated with 

 them were implements fashioned by man. 



Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, which is so well 

 known to all visitors to that charming neighbour- 

 hood, and has been known "from time immemorial," 

 was first found to contain bones in 1824, and later 

 on was actively explored by the Rev. J. MacEnery. 



In 1S64 the investigations were carried on by the 

 British Association under the unflagging superin- 

 tendence of Mr. Pengelly ; and to him we owe the 

 chief part of our knowledge of the history of this 

 cave. All the species obtained in the Brixham cave 

 have been found at Kent's Hole, and in addition, the 

 Macliairodiis latideiis. Wolf, Glutton, Badger, Irish 

 Elk, &c. In this cave of Kent's Hole the oldest 

 deposit consists of a breccia with remains of Bear 

 only, and flint implements. Above it, and separated 

 by a bed of crystalline stalagmite, comes the cave- 

 earth with remains of Hyrena, &c., and more flint 

 implements. This deposit is covered with a granular 

 stalagmite, and with more recent deposits. 



Mr. Pengelly has pointed out that the implements 

 found in the breccia are very dissimilar to those found 

 in the cave-earth above, the former being much ruder 

 than the latter, which are very elaborate, and were 

 associated with bone implements and ornaments. 

 He considered that the cave was tenanted by two 



* Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, "Cave Hunting," pp. 13, 317. 

 See also Pengelly, Ceologist, vol. ii. p. 434 ; T:uvts. Devon 

 Assoc, vol. iv. p. 81. 



distinct races of men, between which was evidence of 

 a long lapse of time : both races of men were coeval 

 with extinct animals, but they nevertheless repre- 

 sented two distinct civilizations. Mr. Pengelly 

 thought it possible that the earliest race may have 

 witnessed the separation of England from the Con- 

 tinent, and its formation as an island. 



We must not linger any more over the caverns, 

 but proceed to notice other subjects deserving of 

 attention. 



Submarine forests have been observed in Torbay, 

 in the Salcombe Estuary, and more recently in 

 Bigbury Bay. 



These are much obscured by the recent accumula- 

 tions of marine sand or shingle. Mr. Pengelly 

 mentions tliat by a great and almost sudden removal 

 of sand at Blackpool, near Dartmouth, a submerged 

 forest was there disclosed in 1802, and not again 

 exposed until about fifty years subsequently. 



An excellent example of a raised sea-beach was 

 first described by Mr. Godwin-Austen at Llope's 

 Nose, near Torquay. The lowest part was 31 feet 

 above the usual high-water line. Another raised 

 beach is met with on the Thatcher Stone, an islet of 

 Devonian limestone, near Torquay. 



On the Hoe at Plymouth, and at Boveysand, 

 certain deposits of clay and sand have been de- 

 scribed by Mr. C. Spence Bate and Mr. R. N. 

 Worth. They are regarded by Mr. Worth as old 

 fluviatile accumulations, formed either when the river 

 ran at a higher level, or \\hcn the land was lower. 

 In the latter case they may constitute a raised 

 river-bed. Traces of a genuine raised sea-beach 

 have also been noticed on the Hoe at an elevation 

 of 30 feet above high-water mark. 



Glancing briefly at the character of the changes 

 that the rocks around Plymouth teach, we find that the 

 oldest are those of A^eryan Bay and Mevagissey, rocks 

 which were originally spread out as soft sands in later 

 ("ambrian times, or, as some would say, in the Lower 

 Silurian period. 



Portions of these rocks, now altered into quartzites, 

 may have formed part of the coast-line in the 

 Devonian period, between whicli, long ages past, 

 when rocks elsewhere developed, the LIpper Silurian, 

 and perhaps the Lower Old Red Sandstone, were 

 deposited. In all probability they formed part of 

 a mass connected with what is now the French coast 

 as late as Triassic times, for the "popples" of 

 the Budleigh Salterton pebble-bed are many of them 

 quartzites of similar character, and contain shnilar 

 fossils.* 



The Devonian strata, commencing with sandy 

 sediments, which may be the only true representa- 

 tives of the Old Red Sandstone, in condition as well 

 as in time, perhaps originally commenced as lacustrine 

 deposits, which were succeeded, on depression of 



* See paper by Salter, Geol. J\fn,^., vol. i. p. 5. 



