August 29, 1878] 



NATURE 



469 



ia^ its base anywhere. The Chamber measured thirty feet from 

 north to south, from seven to thirteen feet from east to west, 

 and about the same in height. The only objects met with were 

 four pieces of bone and a large lump of oxide of manganese. 

 The Recess yielded twelve teeSi of bear and several pieces of 

 bone. 



The UndervauU. — On the completion of the "Tortuous 

 Gallery " the exploration of an adjacent branch of the cavern, 

 called the " Undervault," was begun. The deposit found in it 

 must be regarded as an uncertain admixture of breccia and the 

 less ancient cave-earth, washed confusedly together. In it were 

 found forty-seven teeth of bear, thirty-three of hyaena, two of 

 fox, numerous bones and fragments of bone, one chert flake, 

 and the greater portion of a large quartzite pebble. Many of 

 the teeth of both bear and hyaena were in jaws and portions of 

 jaws, and some of them were remarkably fine specimens. 



The Great Oven. — That branch of the cavern termed the 

 "Great Oven" was partly explored in 1875, but its "Eastern 

 Reach " was then left intact. This reach occupied the Com- 

 mittee from December 18, 1877, to February 15, 1878. It was 

 thirty-four feet long, and varied in width from ten to three feet. 

 The deposits were, in descending order, (i) granular stalagmite, 

 a few inches thick only ; {2) cave-earth, also but a few inches 

 thick ; (3) crystalline stalagmite, from two to three feet thick ; 

 and {4) breccia, the base of which was nowhere reached. The 

 following specimens were exhumed : — Twenty teeth of bear, 

 eight of hysena, and three of fox, in the cave-earth ; one tooth 

 of bear, in the crystalline stalagmite ; and fifteen teeth of bear 

 in the breccia. The relics of hysena were accompanied by a 

 few coprolites. 



The High Chamber. — A branch of the cavern, the most remote 

 from the external entrances, has been called the " High 

 Chamber " on account of its suddenly rising several feet above 

 the level of the " Cave of Inscriptions," out of which it opens. 

 Its exploration was commenced in February, 1878, and is still in 

 progress. Up to the end of July it had yielded fifty-three 

 "finds," including eighty-nine teeth of bear, numerous bones 

 and pieces of bone, a chert implement, two chert flakes, and a 

 quartzite pebble, all found in the breccia. There are reasons for 

 believing that this chamber will lead to an entrance of the 

 cavern hitherto unknown. 



The president proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Pengelly. 

 With regard to the quartzite pebble found in the high chamber 

 it appeared to be a block from which a fragment had been 

 separated for some useful purposes. The flint implements are 

 altered, and coated with a white soft substance, some of its 

 original substance having been removed by water. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins said the exploration was a great feat of 

 engineering. He objected to the term quaternary as some times 

 applied to these deposits. The tertiary, quaternary, and pleisto- 

 cene periods are so closely twined that separation is impossible. 

 He accounted for the arrangement of the animal remains by alter- 

 nations of climate. In some caves they found generally Arctic 

 animals like the reindeer and glutton associated with animals 

 that were now only found in warm climates, and the probable 

 cause was that there was a great stretch of land over the greater 

 part of the Mediterranean area, from the north of Africa over 

 the region of Europe, until it finally reached Great Britain, and 

 even Ireland. This would afford a means of migration to 

 animals northward and southward, according to the season. 

 This was also shown by the Pyrenees, and so on through Germany, 

 until they arrived at this country. In the Derbyshire caves, 

 Cressvvell Cave, for instance, there was a sequence of events 

 verj' much the same as in this cave. He was now of opinion that 

 the Machairodus was a late cave animal, being found in upper 

 cave earth of Cresswell Cave, as well as in Kent's Hole. 



Mr. Pengelly was glad to hear Prof. Boyd Dawkins' recanta- 

 tion as to Machairodus. 



Mr. Plunket read a Report of the Committee (secretary, Prof. 

 A. Macalister, M.D.) on the Fermanagh Caves, and exhibited a 

 number of animal remains, &c., collected in them. 



Prof. Leith Adams said they could not come to any conclusion 

 yet as to the animal remains, for they had not been examined. 

 From what they knew of the extinct animals of these islands, 

 they must come to the conclusion that there was a land connec- 

 tion between England and Ireland. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins said he had looked at the bones, and he 

 found the remains of a domestic hog, shorthorn ox, goat, and 

 red deer — animals which had been used for food — and the bone 



of a large dog, probably the large deerhound of the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries. 



The fourth Report of the Underground Water Committee was 

 read by Mr. C. E. De Ranee, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E.— The 

 value of the Government geological maps as a basis for inves- 

 tigation in questions of water-supply was acknowledged ; and 

 the areas occupied by permeable formations capable of yielding 

 water in wells sunk in suitable situations was stated to be no 

 less than 26,687 square miles. This, receiving a rainfall aver- 

 aging thirty inches a year, would yield up to wells not less than 

 six to fifteen inches per annum, or a daily quantity of nit 

 less than 240,cxx3 gallons for each square mile of surface, 

 a total quantity far in excess of that required by the popu- 

 lation of England or Wales. The great value of the supplies 

 for the towns and districts of the Midland Counties was insisted 

 on because of their purity, and from the unlikelihood of such 

 prospects of water-supply from such sources being stopped by 

 the strong parliamentary opposition which is brought to bear 

 against all large gravitation schemes, whether the water be pro- 

 posed to be taken from natural lakes, as the Thirlmere for Man- 

 chester, or from natural reservoirs as was proposed in the case 

 of Liverpool. 



The well borings at Bootle, near Liverpool, of 26 inches 

 diameter just completed for the Liverpool Corporation by 

 Messrs. Mather and Piatt, were described as of great interest, 

 the boring having reached a depth of 1,000 feet without reaching 

 the base of the new red sandstone. 



The Committee expresses a hope that the boring will be con- 

 tinued, as it may settle several questions not merely of local 

 interest but of national importance : the water-bearing capa- 

 bilities of the lower beds of the new red sandstone at great 

 depths, the character of the coal-measures which undoubtedly 

 underlie Liverpool, and the depth to them. 



Amongst a large number of wells and borings alluded to in 

 the Report was one at Burford, near Witney, in Oxfordshire, 

 where the coal-measures with a coal-seam were found under the 

 ooliths and triassic strata. Then water was also described as 

 being present in the new boring of the Metropolitan Board of 

 Works at Crossness. 



Report on the Proposed Kentish Exploration, by R. A. C. 

 Godwin- Austen, F.R.S, — During the past year nothing has been 

 done to warrant an application for any portion of the grant at 

 the disposal of the Kentish boring exploration, but results have 

 been arrived at by private enterprises which indicate the infor- 

 mation sought for — whether the palaeozoic rocks underlie the 

 chalk formation of the south-east of England as in Belgium and 

 the south of France, 



The finding of characteristic upper -Devonian fossils in the 

 boring at the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford 

 Street, seems to prove the supposition of the Coal Commission 

 of 1871, that the line of the Thames Valley is that of the course 

 of the palaeozoic rocks. 



One point remains. In what direction from the end of 

 Tottenham Court Road may the mountain limestone and the 

 coal measures be looked for? That their existence may be 

 certainly inferred is shown by our acquaintance with the physical 

 and geological history of the European area at those early times. 



The so-called "Devonian" is but an early st^e of the 

 "mountain limestone series," consisting of (i) lower carboni- 

 ferous or Devonian ; (2) carboniferous limestone proper ; (3) 

 coal measures. 



The Devonian beds, dipping at a high angle, is important ; 

 had they been lying flat, it might be inferred that the upper 

 series were denuded, but there is every prospect that these beds 

 may be found underlying the Devonian at some distance from 

 the present bore-hole. 



The Tottenham Court Road boring suggests that the Franco- 

 Belgian palaeozoic band with which their coal is associated, is 

 continued under London, and within the very narrow limits here 

 assigned (between Oxford Street and the Thames). Considering 

 the vast importance of the discovery of productive coal-measures 

 from the south-east of England westwards, the time has come 

 when the results so nearly arrived at at Tottenham Court Road 

 should be completed. Half the money spent on the Wealden 

 boring at Netherfield would have settled the theoretical question, 

 and even if they were of the same quality as the Bculonnais coal, 

 the objections against the quality of that coal have-been fully 

 answered. 



Major-Gen. Lane Fox, F.R.S., read the Report of the Earth' 



