390 NATURAL SCIENCE. May. 



Royal and Geological Societies took immediate advantage of the 

 discovery, by appointing and subsidising a Committee to explore 

 exhaustively the untouched cave. On the shoulders of Mr. Pengelly 

 fell practically all the work of supervision, but he had his reward in 

 finding ample corroboration of his previous conclusions ; for beneath 

 the unbroken stalagmitic floor were brought to light relics of human 

 handiwork in such intimate association with the remains of extinct 

 mammalia as to place their contemporaneity beyond all cavil. 



A change of attitude towards the great question of the geological 

 range of Man having been thus effected, the eyes of many were again 

 turned towards the depths of Kent's Cave, if haply they might yield 

 fresh evidence bearing upon this subject. At the Bath meeting of 

 the British Association in 1864, mainly by the influence of Sir Charles 

 Lyell, who was then President, a powerful committee was appointed 

 for the systematic exploration of the cavern ; and of this committee — 

 to borrow Professor Bonney's words — Mr. Pengelly was " the hands 

 and the eyes, and, at least, a fair proportion of the compound brain." 

 In fact, from the commencement of the work, on March 28, 1865, 

 until its close, on June 19, 1880, Mr. Pengelly laboured with an 

 untiring enthusiasm, which is attested by his long series of annual 

 reports to the Association. One of the most important incidents in 

 the course of this exploration was the confirmation — though not until 

 the work had been continued for more than seven years — of 

 MacEnery's discovery of the teeth of MachiBwdus in Kent's Cavern. 



At the meetings of the British Association, Mr. Pengelly was 

 always a welcome figure, whether in the Geological section or in the 

 Anthropological department. Over the former he presided at the 

 Plymouth meeting, in 1877, and over the latter at the Southport 

 meeting, in 1883. On each occasion he discoursed, in his presiden- 

 tial address, on the Bone Caverns of Devonshire. 



After the model of the British Association, Mr. Pengelly suggested 

 the foundation of a Devonshire Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Literature, and Art. This was formed in 1862, and at the 

 Barnstaple meeting, five years afterwards, Pengelly fitly occupied the 

 presidential chair. 



In order to settle the vexed question of the age of the Bovey 

 beds, he undertook a systematic examination of these deposits, and 

 in 1 86 1 read before the Royal Society a valuable paper on " The 

 Lignite and Clays of Bovey Tracey." At the same meeting, a com- 

 munication was received from Dr. Oswald Heer, to whom the plant- 

 remains had been submitted, "On the Fossil Flora of Bovey Tracey." 

 These essays were reprinted, with a preface, as a monograph, in 

 1863 ; and although Mr. Starkie Gardner's subsequent studies of the 

 Bovey flora have modified our opinion as to the age and origin of the 

 deposits, Mr. Pengelly's work remains of great permanent value. 



A fine collection of Devonian fossils from Devonshire and Corn- 

 wall, formed by Mr. Pengelly, was presented in i860 by the Baroness 



