48 REPORT—1868. 
Cavern’s history. It will be convenient thereforeto speak, in future, of the 
floor represented by these blocks as ‘‘ The Older Floor,” and of that which 
the Committee found spreading in an unbroken sheet through all branches of 
the Cavern as “The Modern Floor.” 
As in former years, bones were occasionally found in the Modern Floor of 
Stalagmite in the Lecture Hall. Amongst the most important are a fine molar 
of Rhinoceros, a premolar of Hyzna, two or three molars of Bear, a large 
part of a humerus, probably of Bear, and an os calcis of some large animal. 
The teeth of Rhinoceros and Hyzna were found, in the presence of one of 
the Superintendents, September 21, 1867, lying together very little below the 
upper surface of the Stalagmite. Since the times of Rhinoceros tichorhinus 
and Hycena spelea in Devonshire, therefore, the increase of thickness of the 
Stalagmitic Floor, in that particular part of the Cavern, has been barely suf- 
ficient to cover these interesting relics. 
A few examples of charred wood were found in the same Floor. 
In most cases, the composition of the Cave-earth was of the ordinary 
typical character—about equal parts of red loam or clay, and of compara- 
tively small angular fragments of limestone. In this condition it almost in- 
variably contained bones, but when there was any marked departure from it, 
by either loam or stones being greatly in excess, bones were extremely rare. 
In a few instances, the deposit was a mixture of fine earth and sand, resem- 
bling ordinary road-washing, and contained no trace of bone. 
The Cave-earth contained a considerable number of fragments of Devonian 
grit, huge blocks of limestone, large masses of old stalegmite, and loose 
lumps of rock-lke breccia. 
The grit fragments could not have been derived from the Cavern-hill, but 
were probably furnished by neighbouring loftier eminences. They have 
assumed subangular or well-rounded forms indicative of the rolling action of 
water, but their transportation into the Cavern by this agency would require 
that the district should have a surface-configuration very unlike that which 
now obtains. 
In addition to the grit pebbles, there were found mingled with them sub- 
angular and rounded pieces of quartz and flint, and also a small angular piece 
of “erystalline schist, such as is not found in any part of the Torbay district, 
but is characteristic of the southern angle of Devonshire, or what may be 
called the Start and Bolt district. A pebble believed to have been derived 
from the same locality was mentioned in the Second Report (1866). 
The blocks of limestone occurred at all levels in the deposit ; they were all 
quite angular, and some of them many tons in weight. 
The masses of old stalagmite were of the same structure as those in the 
Modern Floor, and were found everywhere in the Cave-earth; they were 
all in the form of huge cuboidal blocks, with sharp unrounded edges, The 
Older Floor, of which they are obviously remnants, appears to have been 
broken up by being fractured along planes at right and other high angles to 
its upper and lower surfaces. There appears to have been no instance of 
division in planes even distantly approaching parallelism to these surfaces. 
Many of them contained teeth and bones, all, so far as they were identified, 
the remains of the Cave-bear. 
The loose lumps of rock-like breccia were of a more or less rounded form, 
and were composed of red earth, angular pieces of limestone, and rounded 
and subangular pieces of Devonian grit; they differed from the Cave-earth 
in being invariably cemented together like a firm mass of concrete, and in 
containing a considerably greater proportion of fragments of grit. Almost 
