REPORTS 



ON 



THE STATE OE SCIENCE. 



Second Report of the Committee for Exploring Kent's Cave^'n, Devon- 

 shire. The Committee consisting of Sir Charles Lyell^ Bart., 

 Professor Phillips, Sir John Luhisock, Bart., Mr. John Evans, 

 Mr. Edwakd Vivian, and Mr. William Pengelly (Reporter). 



In tlie Pirst Report of the Committee, presented to the Association at tlie 

 Meeting held at Eirmingham in 1865, it was stated that Kent's Hole is 

 situated in a small limestone hill about a mile eastward from Torquay 

 harbour ; that though it has been known from time immemorial, it did not 

 attract the attention of scientific inquii-ers until the year 1824 ; that it was 

 partially explored by the Ecv. Mr. M'Enery from 1825 to 1829, by Mr. 

 Godwin -Austen prior to 1840, and by the Torquay Natural History Society in 

 184G; and that all the explorers had been vmanimous in stating that they 

 found flint "implements," undoubtedly of human origin, mixed up with 

 remains of extinct animals, in the ordinarj- cave-earth, beneath the floor of 

 stalagmite. 



Having briefly narrated the circumstances which led to the exploration of 

 the cavern under the auspices of the British Assoieation, the Committee pro- 

 ceeded to state that they had selected for the commencement of their 

 researches the large Chamber into which the most southerly of the two 

 external entrances opens, having been guided in their selection by the acces- 

 sibility of the Chamber, and by the indispensable fact that the deposits it 

 contained were certainly intact; that these deposits were, in descending 

 order — 1st, huge blocks of limestone which had fallen from the roof, and 

 some of which were estimated to weigh 7 tons each ; 2nd, black mould or 

 mud, varying from '6 to upwards of 12 inches in thickness, and lying 

 between and beneath the limestone blocks ; 3rd, a stalagmitic floor, gra- 

 duating downwards into a firm stony breccia, and averaging at least a foot 

 in thickness; 4th, reddish ochreous loam, or "cave-earth," of unknown 

 depth, having incorporated within it a large number of angular fragments of 



1866. 3J 



