ON Kent's cavern, Devonshire. 1j> 



F.R.S., of the British Museum, who has kindly furnished the following note 

 respecting them : — 



"British Museum, 10 July, 1871, 



" The ferns are specimens of Pteris aquilina, Linn., and have belonged to 

 very luxuriant plants ; they do not diifer from those now growing in Eng- 

 land. It is possible that the fragment -^^-f may be another species, but it 

 is too imperfect to determine, and it may only be a barren portion of the 

 Pteris, with shorter and broader pinnules than the other specimens. 



(Signed) " Wm. Cabbxjtheks." 



Returning for a moment to the Old Crystalline Stalagmitic Floor beneath 

 the Cave-earth, it was observed that, like the modern and granular one, it 

 had here and there on its upper surface conical bosses rising above its gene- 

 ral level, and that there were corresponding protuberances vertically above 

 them on the upper floor. The same fact had been noticed in the other 

 branches of the Cavern where the two Floors occurred in the same vertical 

 sections, — a fact apparently warranting the conclusion that the drainage 

 through the Cavern-roof underwent no important change during the entire 

 period represented by the two floors and the intervening Cave-earth. 

 When to this it is added that such bosses are, at least in most cases, verti- 

 cally beneath Stalactitic pendants on the ceiling, it may be further inferred 

 that the ancient and modern lines of drainage are, in the main, identical. 



On the completion of the work in the Sloping Chamber, on July 11, 

 1871, the excavation of the "Wolf's Den," which opens out of its northern 

 side, was begun. It was in this Den that Mr. M'Enery found the canines 

 of Machairodus latidens, which have excited so much attention. No such 

 specimens have been met with during the present investigation up to this 

 time. 



The Committee, believing it possible that the subject might prove to be 

 connected with their researches, have from time to time mentioned the 

 -occasional occurrence of living animals in the Cavern*. Indeed, Kent's 

 Hole is not better known to the palaeontologist as a store-house of mamma- 

 lian remains, than to the Devonshire naturalist as a home of the Great 

 Horseshoe Bat {Ehinolophus ferrum-equinum, Leach) ; and every visitor, be- 

 fore the present exploration, must have frequently seen them hanging from 

 the walls of the more retired branches. The following facts have presented 

 themselves during the last twelve months : — 



Whilst the excavation of one of the lateral branches of Smerdon's Passage 

 was in progress, a considerable number of fresh spindle-shaped faeces, about 

 •6 inch long and -2 inch thick, were observed lying on the surface of the 

 Cave-earth, whUe between it and the roof there was an interspace just 

 sufficient to allow an animal about the size of a Badger to pass. 



The workmen having observed that the candles were much nibbled during 

 their absence, that the greasy wooden candlesticks were sometimes carried off 

 and some of them, after a few days, found secreted in small holes, set a suit- 

 ably baited gin for the suspected offender. Their efforts were rewarded the 

 next morning by finding a rat dead in the trap. 



Old newspapers &c. are occasionally sent to the Cavern for the purpose of 

 wrapping up small boxes of specimens, or such delicate objects as need more 

 than ordinary care. On November 28th, 1871, the workmen, using in this way 

 a part of a copy of the ' Saturday Review,' unintentionally left one complete 

 .and sound sheet, i. e. two leaves, near the spot where they had been at work. 



* See Eeports Brit. Assoc. 1869, p. 204, and 1870, p. 27. 



