ON Kent's cavern, Devonshire. 11 



appears to have been used as a polishing-stone. It was found March Bth, 

 1871, with 2 teeth of Hyaena, 2 of Horse, 3 of Rhinoceros, gnawed bones, 

 and a flint flake, in the fourth " foot-level," having over it a Stalagmitic Floor 

 18 inches thick. No such specimen had been noticed before. 



A piece of burnt bone was found on the 22nd of the same month, with 

 fragments of bone and faecal matter, in the second " foot-level," having a 

 Stalagmitic Floor over it. 



Mr. M'Enery appears to have excavated beyond the limits of his shaft, not 

 only in an easterly direction, as has been already stated, but also, at least, 

 north and south of it. So far as can be determined, the shaft was first sunk, 

 and the material taken out lodged between it and the western wall of the 

 Chamber, after which he undertook what may be called the adjacent hori- 

 zontal diggings, and fiUed up the shaft with a portion of the excavated matter, 

 thereby rendering it impossible to determine the exact site of the shaft itself. 

 He does not appear to have taken outside the Cavern any portion of the deposit 

 in order to ensure its more complete examination ; hence it is not probable 

 that all its contents were detected. Indeed, when speaking of his researches 

 in this Chamber, he says, " It was feared that in the ardour of the first search, 

 facts of importance might have been overlooked. The mass of mould thrown 

 up on the former occasion was therefore a second time turned over and care- 

 fully searched, but nothing new was brought to light "*. 



This mass the Superintendents decided on taking out of the Cavern, 

 partly to facilitate the excavation of deposits certainly intact beyond, and 

 also because it was thought likely to be lodged on unbroken ground. Though 

 there seemed but httle prospect of finding any thing by subjecting it to a 

 third search, such a search was nevertheless made, and did not go unre- 

 warded. The heap, though mainly of Cave-earth, included fragments of the 

 granular Stalagmitic Floor and portions of the Black Mould, and yielded 

 hundreds of bones and portions of bones (one having an artificial hole lined 

 with stalagmitic matter), fragments of antlers, the largest fragment of an Ele- 

 phant's tusk that the Committee have met with, 143 teeth of Hysena, 153 of 

 Horse, 45 of Rhinoceros, 27 of Deer, including " Irish Elk " and Reindeer, 6 

 of Bear, 5 of Ox, 5 of Sheep, 3 of Elephant, 3 of Wolf, 3 of Dog (?), 2 of Fox, 

 2 of Pig, and 1 of Lion, a few marine sheUs, several fragments of black pot- 

 tery, 4 pieces of stalagmite with fern-impressions, and 13 flint implements 

 and flakes, — aU, with one exception, of the prevalent white colour, and two 

 of them decidedly good specimens of the strongly ridged lanceolate forms. 

 In short, the virgin soil, in some parts of the Cavern, has been less pro- 

 ductive than was this mass which had been twice carefully searched, but by 

 candle-light only. 



As was thought probable, the mass of dislodged materials proved to be 

 lying on ground which had never been broken. Between Mr. M'Enery's 

 shaft and the west wall of the Chamber there was a space of at least 17 

 feet ; and at 14 feet from the wall the Cave-earth was found to have not 

 only the ordinary granular Stalagmitic Floor overlying it, but to be de- 

 posited on another and necessarily an older Floor of the same material, but 

 which, instead of being granular, was made up of prismatic crystals — posses- 

 sing, in short, the characters both of position and structure of the Old Crys- 

 talline Floor found in the " Lecture Hall" and " South-west Chamber," and 

 described in the Fourth Report (Norwich, 1868), — a remnant, in situ, of the 

 Floor which had furnished the large blocks of stalagmite found in the Cave- 



* See Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. iii. p. 289 (1869). 



