ON KEXT S CAVERN, DEVONSHIRE. 5 



northern side of the mouth of the Gallery, the floor of the Chamber bifurcated 

 and became two distinct floors, one above the other, and separated by an inter- 

 space which varied from 6 inches to nearly 4 feet in height — the uppermost 

 being the " ceiling," on the common level ; the lowermost the " floor," on the 

 level of the depressed portion in the southern part of the Chamber. 



Immediately above the " ceUing " there is in the limestone rock a consider- 

 able alcove. This branch of the cavern, therefore, is divided into three stories 

 or flats — that below the " floor," occupied with cave-earth ; that between the 

 " floor " and " cciHng," entirely unoccupied ; and that above the " ceiling," 

 also without deposit of any kind. 



The nether surface of the "ceiling" is of a beautifully stainless cream- 

 colour, and sends do^vn a profusion of small stalactites. When fii'st disclosed, 

 the " ceiling " was siipposed to be a stratum of limestone in situ, completely 

 invested with a mere fllm of stalagmite. In order to determine its true 

 character, several holes were bored through it, when it was found to bo 

 exclusively stalagmite throughout — granular and comparatively soft in the 

 upper part, but highly crystalline towards the base. 



The origin of this mass is not a little puzzling ; for whUst on the one hand 

 it seems necessary to suppose that it was formed on a basis, either of lime- 

 stone i)i situ or of dctrital matter mechanically accumulated ; on the other, 

 it is difficult to understand how this basis could have been removed so com- 

 pletely as to leave behind no trace of stone or bone. Sueili " ceilings " occur 

 iji the famous Brixham Cavern on the opposite shore of Torbay, but to their 

 lower surfaces there cling numerous stony and other relics of the deposits on 

 which they were moulded. After a careful study of the case, the Superin- 

 tendents of the exploration incline to the opinion that the "ceiling" was 

 formed as a floor on a deposit of fine earth which once filled the Gallery to 

 the necessary height, or, in other words, to the prevalent level of the deposit 

 in the adjacent Chamber; that this deposit, either by a considerable sub- 

 sidence or by being washed out, was completely detached from the floor which 

 overlay it ; and that subsequently a second and lower floor was formed in the 

 GaUery, and additions were made to both the upper and the lower sm'faees 

 of the " ceiling" or first floor. In support of this opinion, it may be stated 

 that the cream-coloured stalagmite forming the lower surface of the " ceiling," 

 instead of being characteristic of the entire mass, is but a sort of " veneer," 

 nowhere more than an inch thick. On being stripped off it is found that, 

 both in texture and in colour, it is strongly contrasted with the material to 

 which it was attached. The newly exposed sui-face, and the surface only, 

 has the exact colour of the cave- earth ; in fact it is soil-stained, and thus har- 

 monizes well with the hypothesis. Again, the abruptly truncated character of 

 its eastern end or commencement renders it not improbable that the " ceil- 

 ing " is a remnant of a floor which formerly extended eastward into the 

 Chamber, but which has there partially perished. Further, that a floor has 

 been destroyed, either wholly or partially, is conclusively proved by the fact 

 that a large number of fragments of stalagmite were met with, incorporated 

 in the existing floor and also in the cave-earth below, both in the Chamber 

 and in the Gallery. 



In each branch of the cavern yet explored, bones of various animals and 

 pieces of charred wood have been found in the stalagmite, but by no means 

 abimdantly. They have always been met with towards the base of the floor, 

 and generally in the brecciated portion of it. The statement made in the First 

 Report, that perhaps none of the animals represented in the stalagmite were 



