i20 



NATURE 



[Augtisi 1 6, 1877 



the present time ; the work has gone on continuously throughout 

 the entire thirteen years ; and the result has been, not only a 

 complete confirmation of Mr. MacEnery's sta'ements, but the 

 discovery of far older deposits than he suspected — deposits 

 implying great changes of, at least, local geographical conditions ; 

 changes in the fauna of the district ; and yielding evidence of 

 men more ancient and far ruder than even those who made the 

 oldest flint tools found in Kent's Hole prior to the appointment 

 of the committee. 



The cavern consists of a series of chambers and passages, 

 which resolve themselves into two main divisions, extending from 

 nearly north to south in parallel lines, but passing into each other 

 near their extremities, and throwing off branches, occasionally 

 of considerable size. 



The successive deposits, in descending order, were : — 



1st, or uppermost. Fragments and blocks of limestone from 

 an ounce to upwards of 100 tons weight each, which had fallen 

 from the roof from time to time, and were, in some instances, 

 cemented with carbonate of lime. 



2nd. Beneath and between these blocks lay a dark-coloured 

 mud or mould, consisting largely of decayed leaves and other 

 vegetable matter. It was from 3 to 12 inches thick, and kno«vn 

 as the bind mould. This occupied the entire eastern division, 

 with the exception of a small chamber in its south-western end 

 only, but was not found in the other, the remoter, parts of the 

 cavern. 



3rd. Under this was a stalagmitic floor, commonly of 

 granular texture, and frequently laminated, from less than an 

 inch to fully five feet in thickness, and termed the granular 

 stalagmitf. 



4th. An almost black layer, about four inches thick, composed 

 mainly of small frai^ments of charred wood, and distinguished as 

 the black band, occupied an area of about lOO square feet, 

 immediately under the granular stalagmite, and, at the nearest 

 point, not more than thirty-two feet from one of the entrances to 

 the cavern. Nothing of the k'nd has occurred elsewhere. 



5th. Immediately under the granular stalagmite and the 

 black band lay a light red clay, containing usually about 50 per 

 cent, of small angular fragments of limestone, and somewhat 

 numerous blocks of the same rock as large as those lying on the 

 black mould. In this deposit, known as the cavc-earth, many 

 of the stones and bones were, at all depths, invested with thin 

 stalagmitic films. The cave-earth was of unknown depth near 

 the entrances, where its base had never been reached ; but in the 

 remoter parts of the cavern it did not usually exceed a foot, and 

 in a few localiiites it " thinned out " entirely. 



6th. Beneath the cave-earth there was usually found a floor of 

 stalagmite having a crystalline texture, and termed on that 

 account the crystalline stalagmite. It was commonly thicker 

 than the granular floor, and in one instance but little short of 

 12 feet. 



7th. Below the whole occurred, so far as is at present known, 

 the oldest of the cavern deposits. It was composed of sub- 

 angular and rounded pieces of dark-red grit, embedded in a 

 sandy paste of the same colour. Small angular lr.agments of 

 limestone, and investing films of stalagmite, both prevalent in 

 the cave-earth, were extremely rare. Large blocks of lime- 

 stone were occasionally met with ; and the deposit, to which the 

 name of breccia were given, was of a depth exceeding that to 

 which the exploration has yet been carried. 



Except in a very few small branches, the bottom of the cavern 

 has nowhere been reached. In the cases in which there was no 

 cave-earth, the granular stalagmite rested immediately on the 

 crystalline ; and where the crystalline stalagmite was not pre- 

 sent the cave-earth and breccia were in direct contact. Large 

 isolated masses of the crystalline stalagmite, as well as concreted 

 lumps of the breccia, were occasionally met with in the cave-earth 

 thus showing that the older deposits had, in portions of the 

 cavern, been partially broken up, dislodged, and re-deposited. 

 No instance was met with of tire incorporation in a lower bed 

 of fragments derived from an upper one. In short, wherever all 

 the deposits were found in one and the same vertical section, the 

 order of superposition was clear and invariable; and elsewhere 

 the succession, though defective, was never transgressed. 



Excepting the overlying blocks of limestone, of course, all the 

 deposits contained remains of animals, which, however, were not 

 abundant in the stalagmites. 



The black mould, the uppermost bed, yielded teeth and bones 

 of man, dog, fox, badger, brown bear. Bos longi/rons, roe- 

 deer, sheep, goat, pig, hare, rabbit, and seal— species still 

 existing, and almost all of them in Devonshire. This lias been 



called the Ovine bed, the remains of sheep being restricted to it. 

 In it were also found numerous flint flakes and "strike-lights," 

 stone spindle-whorls, fragments of curvilineal pieces of slate, 

 amber beads, bone tools, including awls, chisels, and combs ; 

 bronze articles, such as rings, a fibula, a spoon, a spear-head, 

 a socketed celt, and a pin ; pieces of smelted copper, and a 

 great number and variety of potsherds, including fragments of 

 Samian ware. 



The granular stalagmite, black band, and cave-earth, taken 

 together as belonging to one and the same biological period, 

 may be termed the Hyucnine beds, the cave hyaena being their 

 most prevalent species, and found in them alone. So far as 

 they have been identified, the remains belong to the cave 

 hyaena, Ei/iius cahallus. Rhinoceros tichorhiniis, gigantic Irish 

 deer. Bos pritnii>enius. Bison priscus, red deer, mammoth, 

 badger, cave bear, grizzly bear, brown bear, cave lion, 

 wolf, fox, remdeer, beaver, glutton, Machaitodiis lattdcus, 

 and man — the last being a part of a jaw with teeth, in the 

 granular stalagmite. In the same beds were found unpolished 

 OT.'ate and laitceolate implements made from flakes, not nodules, 

 of flint and chert ; flint flakes, chips, and "cores;" "whet- 

 stones," a "hammer-stone," "dead" shells o( Peclen, bits of 

 charcoal, and bone tools, including a needle or bodkin having a 

 well-formed eye, a pin, an awl, three harpoons, and a perforated 

 tooth of Ijadger. The artificial objects, of both bone and 

 stone, were found at all depths in each of the hya:nine beds, 

 but were much more numerous below the stalagmite than 

 in it. 



The relics found in the crystalline stalagmite and the 

 breccia, in some places extremely abundant, were almost 

 exclusively those of bear, the only exceptions being a very few 

 remains of cave lion and (ox. Hence these have been termed 

 the Ursine beds. It will be remembered that teeth and bones 

 of bear were also met with in both the hyaenine and the ovine 

 beds ; and it should be understood that this biological classifica- 

 tion is intended to apply to Kent's Cavern only. The ursine 

 deposits, or rather the breccia, the lowest of them, also yielded 

 evidences of human existence ; but they were exclusively tools 

 made from nodules, not /lakes, of flint and chert. 



Anstys-Ct'e Cavern. — About three furlongs from Kent's Hole 

 towards N.N.E., near the top of the lofty cliff forming the 

 northern boundary of the beautiful Ansty's Cove, Torquay, there 

 is a cavern where, simultaneously with those in Kent's Cavern 

 Mr. MacEnery conducted some researches, of which he has left 

 a brief account (see Trans. Devon. Assoc, vi., pp. 61-69). I have 

 visited it several times, but it seems to be frequently kept under 

 lock and key, as a tool and powder-house, by the workmen in a 

 neighbouring quarry. It is a simple gallery, and, according to Mr. 

 MacEnery, 63 feet long, from 3 to 9 feet high, and from 3 to 6 

 feet broad. Beneath some angular stones he found a stalagmitic 

 loor 14 inches thick, and in the deposit below remains of deer, 

 horse, bear, fox, hyaena (?), coprolites, a few marine and land 

 shells, one white flint tool with fragments of others, a Roman 

 coin, and potsherds. 



In a letter to Sir W. C. Trevelyan, dated i6th December, 

 1825, Dr. Buckland states that Mr. MacEnery had found in this 

 cave "bones of .all sorts of beasts, and also flint knives and 

 Roman coins ; in short, an open-mouthed cave, which has been 

 inhabited by animals of all kinds, quadruped and biped, in all 

 successive generations, and who have all deposited their exuvije 

 one upon another" {ibid., p. 69). 



y,alm-Brid«e Ca~vern. —AhovA the year 1832 the workmen 

 broke into a bone-cavern in Yealm-Bridge Quarry, aboutone mile 

 from the village of Vealmpton, and eight miles E.S. E. from 

 Plymouth ; and through their operations it was so nearly destroyed 

 that but a small arm of it remained in 1835, when it was visited 

 by Mr. J. C. Bellamy, who at once wrote an account of it, from 

 which it appears that, so far as he could learn, the cavern was 

 about 30 feet below the original limestone surface, and was 

 filled to from i foot to 6 feet of the roof (see " Nat. Hist. 

 S. Devon.," 1839, pp. 86-105). In the same year, but sub. 

 sequently, it was examined by Capt. (afterwards Col. ) Mudge, 

 who states that there were oiginally three openings into the 

 cave, each about 12 feet above the river Yealm ; that the 

 deposits were, in descending order : — 



I Loam with bones and stones .... 3 '5 feet 



2. Stiff whitLsh clay 2'^ 



3- Sand ! . 60 || 



4. Red clay 3'S , 



5. Argillaceous sand 6 to 18 b ',', 



