20 Address of the President. 



In India he devoted his time to zoology, visiting the Hima- 

 laya and Thibet ;* in the Mediterranean the same ; in Egypt 

 the same, varying it with the ancient history of the mummied 

 animals ; in Malta the zoology was soon exhausted, and the 

 geology was suggested to him, which he for some time 

 worked out with the greatest success. Another grant 

 was made to explore caves in the Mauritius and adjacent 

 islands, and already a consignment of Dodo bones has reached 

 this country. At the same meeting an association of a more 

 private kind was formed by the Anthropological Society, for 

 the purpose of exploring the Kirkhead Cave, on the shores 

 of Morecamb Bay, near to Ulverstone. This will be under 

 the superintendence of J. P. Morris. But by far the most 

 important was the grant (a second) of £200 to explore Kent's 

 Cavern, in Devonshire. No one who heard the report by Mr 

 Pengelly of the works already carried on could doubt the 

 interest or importance attached to this exploration, or fail to 

 be gratified by the careful and systematic manner in which 

 it is carried out. There is a stalagmitic floor, above which 

 a considerable depth of black earth has accumulated, in which 

 the bones of recent animals, human and other remains lead- 

 ing to a date, occur. Above this, very large blocks of rock 

 occurred, so large as to require blasting before they could be 

 removed, and which also showed that no modem exploration 

 or interference with this black earth could have taken place. 

 Immediately below this and the floor of stalagmite lays the 

 red earth or cave loam, four feet in depth, and which is now 

 being excavated in layers of one foot each. This red earth 

 contains the bones of the usual extinct cave animals, inter- 

 mingled with works of human maniifacture. The position or 

 layer in which these occur is carefully kept and recorded, and 

 many of the human implements are found in the lowest 

 layer. A large number of the bones are scored with teeth 

 marks, 



* The Excursions in India are now passing through the press, and 

 " Wanderings of a Naturalist," by A. Leith Adams, M.D., will soon be 

 before the public. 



