13 REPORT 1871. 



earth in the Sloping Chamber, as already stated. From the point where it was 

 first seen, it was everywhere continuous up to the western wall. Its thickness 

 has not been ascertained ; for though it was partially broken up in cutting 

 the four-feet section, the bottom of it was not reached. No objects of any 

 kind were found in it. Had Mr. M'Euery's excavations been carried but a 

 yard further west he must have encountered it, and would have been enabled 

 to solve the problem of the blocks which he so often found in the Cave- 

 earth. 



The Committee are most anxious to guard against the impression that, in 

 any of the foregoing remarks, they have been unmindful of the service which 

 Mr. M'Enery rendered to science, or have the most remote wish to depre- 

 ciate the value of his long-continued labours. Indeed, when they remember 

 that the means at his disposal must have been very limited, and that he was 

 amongst the pioneers in cavern searching, they cannot but feel that the 

 extent and results of his investigations are richly entitled to the warmest 

 praise. 



They venture, however, to take this opportunity of stating that, in order 

 to a thorough and satisfactory investigation, cavern-deposits should be ex- 

 cavated, not by sinking occasional shafts, but continuously in a horizontal direc- 

 tion, to a uniform depth not exceeding 5 or at most 6 feet at first ; that 

 the material should be carefully examined in situ, and then taken to day- 

 light for re-examination. Through not following the first, Mr. M'Enery 

 failed to understand the exact historical order of the Cavern-deposits ; and 

 through not being able to accomplish the second, he passed over many speci- 

 mens calculated to have modified his conclusions, and which he would have 

 been delighted to have found. For example, when speaking of the Sloping 

 Chamber, he says, " The [Stalagmitic] crust is thickest in the middle .... 

 for opening the excavation, the same means were employed as to break up 

 a mass of ancient masonry. Flint blades were detected in it at all depths, 

 even so low as to come in contact with the fossil bones and their earthy 

 matrix, but never below them" *. During the last six months, however, the ex- 

 cavations made in the same Chamber, and in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 his, have brought forth Flint implements from every level of the Cave-earth 

 to which the work has been carried, and they were actually found in 

 greatest numbers in the lowest levels. To this may be added the fact that 

 in his heap of refuse-matter, which he had twice examined, there were, as 

 has been already said, upwards of a dozen flint blades, such as he stated 

 never occurred in the Cave-earth. Had the soil been examined in daylight, 

 they could not have been overlooked ; for, instead of being specimens of 

 little value, they are better far than some of those which he figured ; and it 

 is but right to add that many of those found by the Committee were thus 

 detected. 



Again, Mr. M'Enery was keenly watchful for extraneous objects in the 

 Stalagmitic Floor ; and, from his silence on the question, it may be safely 

 concluded that he never saw fern-impressions in it ; nevertheless his refuse- 

 heap contained four small slabs of the floor, in each of which was a 

 weU-marked impression, requiring not additional manipulation, but simple 

 daylight for their detection. Indeed every specimen of this kind has been 

 recognized outside the Cavern only. 



The four slabs just mentioned, as well as the two found by the Committee 

 in the Floor they broke up, have been submitted to Mr. "W. Carruthers, 



* See Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. iii. p. 247 (1869). 



I 



