ON Kent's cavern^ Devonshire. 3 



second) and intersect one another ; their roofs are also perforated with holes, 

 and exhibit traces of the action of running water. 



Throughout both Reaches there were in certain places strips of Stalag- 

 mitic Floor extending continuously across from waU to waU, and varying 

 from a quarter of an inch to 6 inches in thickness. The most important 

 of these strips was about 8 feet long. Elsewhere the Cave-earth was either 

 completely bare, or had on it here and there what may be called conical 

 scales of stalagmite, from 3 to 12 inches in diameter at the base, and from 

 1 to 4 inches in thickness at the centre. From them, and generally near 

 the middle, there not unfrequently rose one or more rudely cylindi-ical 

 masses of the same material, sometimes 9 inches high, 6 inches in circum- 

 ference, and locally known as " Cow's Paps." In almost every instance of 

 the kind there depended from the limestone roof, vertically over them, a 

 long, slender, quill-like tube of stalactite, occasionally reaching and uniting 

 with the " Paps." Such tubes occurred also in certain places where there 

 were no " Paps," and in some spots there was quite a forest of them, ex- 

 tending from the roof to the Stalagmitic Floor. Wherever it was possible 

 to excavate the deposit beneath without breaking them, they were left 

 intact. In some cases the Stalagmitic Floor, or the Cave- earth where the 

 latter was bare, reached the roof ; and where this was not the case, the unoc- 

 cupied space was rarely more than a foot in height. 



About midway in the Second Reach there was on each wall a remnant 

 of an old floor of stalagmite, about 8 inches above the floor found intact, 

 fuUy 6 iaches thick, about 6 feet in length, and within a few inches of the 

 roof. 



The mechanical deposit in the Passage was the ordinary red Cave-earth, 

 in some places sandy, but occasionally a very compact clay. It contained a 

 considerable number of angular fragments of limestone, numerous blocks of 

 old crystalline stalagmite, and a few well-rolled pebbles of quartz, red grit, 

 and flint. The masses of limestone were not unfrequently of considerable 

 size ; indeed one of them required to be blasted twice, and another three 

 times, in order to effect their removal ; and some of the blocks of stalagmite 

 measured fully 15 cubic feet. 



From the entrance of the First Reach to about 10 feet within it, the 

 upper surface of the Cave-earth was almost perfectly horizontal ; but from 

 the latter point it rose irregularly higher and higher, until, at the inner end 

 of the Second Reach, the increased height amounted to about 9 feet. There 

 were no tunnels or burrows in the deposit, such as occurred in both the 

 Sally-ports, and were described in the Fifth and Sixth Reports (1869 and 

 1870). Near the inner end of the Second Reach the Cave-earth adjacent to 

 the walls was cemented into a concrete. 



The deposit in the lateral ramifications of the Passage was the same typi- 

 cal Cave-earth, containing blocks of old crystalline stalagmite and angular 

 pieces of limestone, but -without any Stalagmitic Floor. 



It was stated in the Sixth Report (1870), p. 26, that at the third External 

 Entrance, i. e. the first of the low-level series, the deposits were of two 

 kinds — the ordinary Cave-earth, with the usual osseous remains, below ; and 

 small angular pieces of limestone, with but little earth and no fossils, above. 

 Materials of precisely the same character, and in the same order, were found 

 at the new low-level Entrance, at the eastern end of the Second Reach of 

 Smerdon's Passage, as already stated. 



Besides a large number of bones, portions of bones, and fragments of 

 antlers, a total of fully 2900 teeth were found in the Passage and its rami- 



b2 



