1. EXETER AND TORQUAY MEETING. 



limestone, and, no doubt, had its origin in a series of fissures or 

 open joints, which were gradually widened by the action of 

 water until the cave became the channel of an underground 

 stream such as was common in the limestone region of Yorkshire 

 and Derbyshire. The floor of the cave was of breccia, over 

 which lay a stratum of crystalline stalagmite. With these strata 

 were associated ursine remains. Then, proceeding upwards 

 were three layers containing hyaenine remains, namely, the 

 cave earth, the black band, and the granular stalagmite. Finally, 

 on the surface was the black mould, allied to ovine remains. 

 Mr. Pengelly, in investigating the cave, passed through the 

 whole of this series of deposits from the black mould on the 

 surface to the breccia forming the floor of the cave. The 

 breccia was, no doubt, introduced by the underground stream. 

 It consisted of rubble mixed with a great amount of bones, and 

 was turned into bone breccia. The cave at that period was 

 almost exclusively inhabited by the bear. The only other 

 animals that were to be found were the fox, the deer, and the 

 lion. Man, too, was present at that period, as they had evidence 

 in his handiwork, rough stone nodule implements. Above the 

 breccia was the crystalline stalagmite formed by the continuous 

 drip, where the water evaporated and left a deposit of stalagmite. 

 Although the process of formation was very slow, the crystalline 

 stalagmite in many places attained a thickness of 1 2 feet. The 

 remains found w r ere only those of the cave bear, so that in these 

 two periods the cave was essentially a bear's den. But the cave 

 earth was the great depository of animal remains. No less than 

 twenty-six species had been found in it. Indeed, the remains 

 of every animal found in Britain had been found in Kent's 

 Hole, except the hippopotamus. In the cave earth, but not 

 below it, was found the hyaena. Apparently the hyaena did not 

 appear until the cave earth period, and many of the large bones 

 here found, such as those of the mammoth, were doubtless 

 dragged into the cave by the hyaena, for they must not think that 

 the mammoth lived in the cave. Then the cave earth had a human 

 distinction in that the flint nodules found in it were much more 



