TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D.—DEPT. ANTHROPOLOGY. 55 
yemained unshaken to the end. I have frequently been told by one of his’con~ 
temporary professors at Oxford, who knew him intimately, that Buckland shrank 
from the task of preparing for the press new editions of his Religuie Diluviane 
and his Bridgewater Treatise. ‘The work,’ he said, ‘ would be not editing, but. 
re-writing.’ 
Mr. MacEnery intended to publish his ‘Cavern Researches,’ in one volume: 
quarto, illustrated with thirty Plates. In what appears to have been his second 
prospectus, unfortunately not dated, he said ‘The limited circulation of works of 
this nature, being by no means equal to the expenses attendant on the execution. 
of so large a series’ [of Plates], ‘the author is obliged to depart from his original 
plan, and to solicit the support of those who may feel an interest in the result of his. 
researches.’ 
There is reason to believe that at least twenty-one of the Plates were ready, and 
that the rough copy of much of his manuscript was written ; but that, the support 
he solicited not being forthcoming, the idea of publishing had to be abandoned.. 
(See Trans. Devon. Assoc. iii. 198-201.) 
In 1840, Mr. R. A. C. Austen (now Godwin-Austen), F.G.S., read to the: 
Geological Society of London a paper on The Bone Caves of Devonshire, which with. 
some amplifications was incorporated in his Memoir On the Geology of the South- 
East of Devonshire, printed in the Transactions of the Society in 1842 (2nd Ser.,. 
vi. 433-489). Speaking of his own researches in Kent's Cavern, he said: Human 
remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of flint, occur in all parts. 
of the cave and throughout the entire thickness of the clay: and no distinction 
founded on condition, distribution, or relative position, can be observed, whereby 
the human can be separated from the other reliquise’ (Zbzd. p. 444). 
He added : ‘ My own researches were constantly conducted in parts of the cave: 
which had never been disturbed, and in every instance the bones were procured: 
from beneath a thick covering of stalagmite ; so far then, the bones and works of 
man must have been introduced into the cave before the flooring of stalagmite had/ 
been formed’ (Zbzd. p. 446). 
Though these important and emphatic statements were so fortunate as to be 
committed to the safe keeping of print with but little delay, and under the most 
favourable circumstances, they appear neither to have excited any interest, nor 
indeed to have received much, if any, attention. 
In 1846, the Torquay Natural History Society appointed a Committee, con-- 
sisting of Dr. Battersby, Mr. Vivian, and myself—all tolerably familiar with the: 
statements of Mr. MacHnery and Mr. Austen—to make a few diggings in Kent’s: 
Cavern for the purpose of obtaining specimens for their Museum. The work,. 
though more or less desultory and unsystematic, was by no means carelessly done;. 
and the Committee were unanimously and perfectly satisfied that the objects they: 
met with had been deposited at the same time as the matrix in which they were- 
inhumed. At the close of their investigation they drew up a Report, which was: 
printed in the Torquay Directory for November 6, 1846, (See Trans. Devon. Assoc, 
x. 162,) Its substance, embodied in a paper by Mr. Vivian, was read to the 
Geological Society of London, on May 12, 1847, as well as to the British Asso-—- 
ciation in the succeeding June; and the following Abstract was printed in the 
Report of the Association for that year (p. 73) :— 
‘The important point that we have established is, that relics of human art are- 
found beneath the unbroken floor of stalagmite. After taking every precaution, by 
sweeping the surface, and examining most minutely whether there were any traces. 
of the floor having been previously disturbed, we broke through the solid stalag— 
mite in three different parts of the cavern, and in each instance found flint knives. 
. . - In the spot where the most highly finished specimen was found, the passage 
was so low that it was extremely difficult, with quarrymen’s tools and good work-- 
men, to break through the crust ; and the supposition that it had been previously 
disturbed is impossible,’ 
