190 REPORT— 1869. 



early Britisli family, but the Vestibule as the particular apartment where they 

 enjoyed the pleasures of their own fireside, cooked and ate their meals, and 

 fashioned flint nodules and bones into implements for war, for the chase, and 

 for domestic use*. 



To the foregoing description of the Black Band and its locality, it may he 

 added that, even during very wet seasons, that part of the Cavern is very little 

 exposed to drip from the roof. 



It may not be out of place to state here that, in order to ascertain to what 

 extent the hght penetrating the entrance of the Cavern was available, one of 

 the Superintendents of the exploration placed himself near the centre of the 

 Black-Band area, and found that without any artificial light he could distinctly 

 see to write a letter and to read ordinary print. 



But whilst the Committee have seen no reason to abandon or to modify 

 their interpretation of the Black Band, and whilst it has been generally ac- 

 cepted by those who by personal inspection have made themselves familiar 

 with the phenomena of the Cavern, they have found that by one very able 

 and experienced observer it has been regarded with some amount of scepti- 

 cism, on the groimd that the smoke of a fire in the Cavern would either suffo- 

 cate or expel the inhabitants ; that, in short, the interpretation was incon- 

 sistent, since it supposed the Cavern to have been inhabited under conditions 

 which would render it uninhabitable. 



To test the force of this objection, six large faggots of wood were piled in a 

 heap and set on fire, as nearly as possible on the centre of the area which the 

 Black Band had occupied. The fire burnt brilliantly and threw out large 

 tongues of flame, which licked the roof, whilst a party of five persons, without 

 the least inconvenience from smoke or any other cause, sat on the rocky 

 sides of the Cavern and watched the experiment. They were imanimous in 

 the opinion that the objection that was thus put on its trial was utterly in- 

 valid. It may be mentioned, too, that the temperature of the Cavern is per- 

 manent, and stands by night and by day, in summer and in winter, at about 

 52° Fahr., or half a degree above the mean annual temperature of the district 

 in which Kent's Hole is situated. Hence it may be concluded that, unless 

 the Black Band represents a period when the mean temperature of South 

 Devon was considerably below that which at present obtains, large fires would 

 not have been needed. Artificial heat would have been required, not to make 

 the Cavern tenantable, but perhaps for culinary purposes only. 



Before quitting this subject, it may be stated that the smoke drifted to- 

 wards the interior of the Cave, and that one of the party, who from time to 

 time passed all round the fire and to various distances from it, reported that 

 in the narrower adjacent ramifications it was oppressive. 



Soon after the Meeting at Norwich in 1868, Mr. Boyd Dawkins, a member 

 of the Committee, intimated his intention of visiting Torquay for the purpose 

 of examining and naming the remains of the Cave-animals which had been 

 collected during the exploration. It has been stated in previous Reports 

 that, from the beginning, a separate box has been appropriated to the speci- 

 mens found in each distinct " yard " of deposit, that is, in each pai'allelopiped 

 of Cave-earth a yard in length and a foot in breadth and in depth, that 

 with each set of specimens was packed a numbered label, and that the 

 Secretary recorded in his daily Journal fuU information respecting the 

 precise position of the objects thus numerically defined, as well as the date on 

 which they were exhumed. It may be added that, as soon as the specimens 



* Report Brit. Assoc. 1867, p. 32. 



