UN Kent's cavurn^ Devonshire. 7 



not quite destitute of the red loam, were to a very large extent made up of 

 the debris of the schistose grit, in the form of sand, small angular flakes, and 

 pebbles occasionally 3 inches in diameter. 



As already stated, a large number of fragments of stalagmite were found 

 embedded in the cave-earth. The first presented itself in the Chamber, at 

 about 40 feet from the external entrance; and from tliis j^oint inwards to the 

 extremity of the Gallery they were more or less abundant. In the Chamber 

 they occurred chiefly, but not exclusively, in that southern portion of which 

 the Galleiy may be regarded as the direct prolongation ; in other words, in 

 that part where, if anywhere, the original ' stalagmitic floor had been de- 

 stroyed and replaced by a more modern one. Some of these masses were of 

 great size, occasionally .^measui-ing 5 feet long, 4 broad, and 4 deep, or 80 

 cubic feet. They were generally composed of distinct laminae of highly 

 crystalline prisms, having their longest axes at right angles to the plane of 

 lamination. In one or two instances only were there any stony fragments 

 incorporated within, or attached to, them. In the Gallery they were confined 

 to the upper 2 feet of the deposit, but in the Chamber they occupied aU 

 levels alike. Portions of stalactite were also frequently met with. An 

 interesting case of this occurred at about 4 feet from the innermost end 

 of the Gallery, where, within the first foot below the fioor, there lay a fine 

 slab of old stalagmite, having incorporated vdthin it a fallen fragment of a 

 conical pendant of stalactite, measuring 4 inches in diameter. Such ex- 

 amples are wonderfully calculated to convince the observer that the time 

 during which the cave-earth was accumulated, though probably very pro- 

 tracted, was but a small portion of that represented by the entii'e history of 

 the cavern. The case just mentioned takes the mind back to a time when a 

 large stalactite, broken from the roof where it had slowly grown, fell on a 

 floor of stalagmite which, in process of sealing up a subjacent deposit of de- 

 trital matter, had attained the thickness of about an inch. The fallen mass 

 lay undisturbed where it fell, until the floor, increasing gradually, and with 

 periods of intermittence, to the thickness of 7 inches, succeeded in in- 

 vesting it completely. Subsequently, but how long cannot be determined, 

 the floor was brolten up by natural causes, and many of its fragments were 

 embedded in a new deposit. One of the broken masses, containing the 

 stalactite previously mentioned, was lodged in a comparatively narrow branch 

 of the cavern, and covered with about a foot of cave-earth. Over this accu- 

 mulation was formed a new floor of stalagmite, in which lay teeth of Ifyceiia 

 sjyelcea, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and a species of bear. After this floor was 

 completed, a comparatively black muddy soil, averaging a foot in thickness, 

 was introduced. 



Though a large number of bones have been found since the First Report was 

 drawn up, they are by no means abundant everywhere. Thus remarkably 

 few were met with in the third and fourth foot-levels in the Gallery ; in 

 other words, they were almost cntiiely absent in that part of the deposit in 

 which cave-earth was but sparingly present. This is not ascribable to the 

 comparatively contracted character of the Gallery, or the distance from 

 the external entrances, for in the two upper feet they occurred in average 

 abundance ; indeed the last spadeful of true red loam found in the Gallery 

 contained a fine canine of Hijcemi spelcea. Again, in the Passage of Urns, 

 near, and lying between, the two external entrances of the cavern, where, as 

 has been stated, the deposit was almost exclusively made up of loose angular 

 fragments of limestone, there were but few bones, and the few which did 



