150 Mr. Pengelly on Ossiferous Caverns of Devonshire. [May 27, 



Society granted £100 as a contribution towards the expense of a 

 scientific exploration of the cavern ; additional sums were quickly 

 subscribed ; and a committee was formed to arrange and direct the 

 course of proceeding. 



Mr. Pengelly described the structure and formation of the cavern, 

 and the mode of exploration adopted ; and stated that there had been 

 discovered in it a very considerable number of bones of animals, 

 extinct and recent (the rhinoceros, ox-tribe, horse, cave-bear, hyaena, 

 &c.), and also several well marked specimens of the objects com- 

 monly known as " flint knives," and which are generally considered to 

 be of human manufacture. Similar articles had also been found in 

 Kent's Cavern, in a corresponding situation, namely, in the " bone- 

 earth," with the bones of extinct and recent animals, beneath the floo^ 

 of stalagmite. Many fossils from the Oreston fissures were placed on 

 the lecture-table ; and on the wall were suspended diagrams of the 

 ground plan of the Brixham cavern, &c. 



Mr. Pengelly briefly explained his views on the probable origin of 

 caverns in general, and of the Brixham cave in particular : which he 

 referred to, — 1st, The production of a line of fractures ; 2nd, The 

 chemical action of acidulated water, through such fractures ; 3rd, 

 The mechanical action of running water charged with rock debris, 

 &c. 



With respect to the chronology of the cavern and its contents, the 

 speaker referred to the remains of the great herbivora, as evidences of 

 the place having had a tropical or sub-tropical climate at the time of 

 these deposits, and considered that whatever was the antiquity of the 

 bone-earth in the cavern, the human period is as ancient. He thought 

 that many facts concur to suggest a re-investigation of the antiquity of 

 the human race ; and he also considered it highly desirable to organise 

 a system for the general exploration of caverns. 



In the course of the lecture, Mr. Pengelly alluded to the various 

 papers which had been published on the Devonshire caverns, viz. : 

 Mr. Whidbey's Description of the Fissures at Oreston, near Ply- 

 mouth, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1817. A paper on the 

 Yealmpton Caverns, by Lieut. Colonel Mudge, read before the Geolo- 

 gical Society of London, March 23, 1836 ; Mr. Austen's paper on the 

 Bone Caverns of Devonshire, read before the Geological Society, 

 March 25, 1840 ; and the Rev. Mr. M'Enery's " Cavern Researches," 

 being principally a memoir of Kent's Cavern, which was long sup- 

 posed to be lost, but recently discovered and published by Mr. Vivian, 

 of Torquay. 



The following List (revised by Professor Owen) of Fossil Mammalia 

 found in the Devonshire Caverns, was suspended on the Wall. 



Extinct Species. Recent Species. 



Ursas prisciis. 



Ursus spelcms — Great Cave Bear. 

 Htfccna spelata — Cave Hyseua. 

 Felis spelaa — Great Cave Lion. 



Rhinolophus Ferrum - equininm— Great 



Horse-shoe Bat. 

 Sorex vulgaris — Shrew, 

 Meles taxus — Badger. 



