1865.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 445 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



FIRST REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR EXPLORING KENT'S 

 CAVERN, DEVONSHIRE. 



The celebrated Kent's Cavern, or Kent's Hole, is about a 

 mile due east from Torquay harbor. It is situated in a small 

 wooded, limestone hill, on the western side of a valley, which, 

 about half a mile to the south, terminates on the western shore of 

 Torbay. 



The hills which surround the district consist of limestone, 

 green-stone, clay-slate, and a reddish grit or compact sandstone. 

 The two last are traversed by veins of quartz : and, with the 

 possible exception of the greenstone, they all belong to the De- 

 vonian system. Indeed, the entire Torquay peninsula is exclu- 

 sively made up of rocks of this age. 



According to tradition there were formerly four or five 

 entrances to the cavern, of which two only were generally known ; 

 the others being merely narrow apertures or slits through which, 

 until they were blocked up from within, the initiated were wont 

 to enter clandestinely. The remaining two are about fifty feet 

 apart, and occur in the face of one and the same low natural cliff, 

 running nearly north and south, on the south-eastern side of the 

 hill. The northern entrance is in form a rude triangle, about six 

 feet high and eight feet wide at the base. The southern is a 

 natural and tolerably symmetrical arch, nine and a half feet wide 

 at the base and six feet high. Its form is due partly to a small 

 curvature of the strata— the apex of the opening being in the an- 

 ticlinal axis— and partly to the actual removal, by natural causes, 

 of portions of the limestone beds. The base of the opening, or 

 chord of the arc, consists of undisturbed limestone, so that the 

 entrance may be aptly compared to the mouth of an oven. 



From the time of the researches and discoveries which, forty 

 years ago, rendered the cavern famous, to the commencement of 

 the exploration under the auspices of this Association, the southern 

 entrance has been blocked up, the northern alone being used by 

 visitors. The base of the latter is about 189 feet above the level 

 of mean tide, whilst that of the former is about four feet lower. 

 The following is the succession of deposits, in descending order 

 which the chamber contained : — 



1st. Hu^e blocks of limestone which had manifestly fallen 



