8 REPORT 1876. 



The discoveries which have since been made require that this sketch should 

 be corrected in the following particulars : — Remains of Ox, Horse, Ehinoceros, 

 Deer (?), Fox, Elephant, and Lion have all now been found beyond the Long 

 Arcade, in one or more of the three branches of the Cavern explored since 

 the Bristol Meeting. In all other particulars the distribution remains at 

 present as sketched in 1875. 



2nd. No tooth, or, so far as is at present known, other trace of Maehcdrodus 

 latidens has been met with since the last Eeport Avas drawn up. In short, the 

 only evidence of the presence in the Cavern of this extinct species of Mammal 

 which the Committee have detected during the continuous labour of almost 

 twelve years, is the one solitary, but well-marked, incisor found 29th Julj^, 

 1872 — a fact well calculated to impress one with the unsatisfactory nature 

 of merely negative evidence. It cannot be doubted that had this compara- 

 tively small specimen been overlooked, the palseontologists who, prior to its 

 discovery, were sceptical respecting the occurrence of MacJiairodus in Kent's 

 Hole, as stated by Mr. MacEnery, would have believed their scepticism to be 

 strongly confirmed by the labours of your Committee, whilst the number of 

 their followers would have been greatly increased. 



3rd. As has been already stated, the Committee commenced the exploration 

 of the Labyrinth on 28th October, 1875, and from that time to 31st August, 

 1876 (a period of upwards of ten months), they were occupied in it and in 

 Matthews's Passage, both of which they completely explored ; yet, during all 

 that time, and in those two important branches of the Cavern, they found no 

 trace whatever of prehistoric man. Had your Committee, on receiving their 

 appointment from the British Association in 1864, commenced their researches 

 in either of the branches just named (and such a course was by no means 

 without its advocates), instead of beginning at the external mouth of the 

 Cavern and proceeding thence steadily through the successive chambers and 

 galleries, there can be little or no doubt that Kent's Hole would have been 

 pronounced to be utterly destitute of any evidence on the question of Human 

 Antiquity, and but poorly furnished with the remains of extinct Mammalia. 

 The work would probably have been closed without going further, to the 

 great loss of Anthropology and Palaeontology, as well as of popular education 

 in these important branches of science. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Prof. Sylvester, Prof. 

 Cayley, Prof. Hirst, Rev. Prof. Bartholomew Price, Prof. H. J. 

 S. Smith, Dr. Spottiswoode, Mr. R. B. Hayward, Dr. Salmon, 

 Rev. Prof. R. Townsend, Prof. Fuller, Prof. Kelland, Mr. J. M. 

 Wilson, Prof. Henrici, Mr. J.W. L.Glaisher, andVroi'. Clifford, 

 appointed for the purpose of considering the possibility of Imjiroving 

 the Methods of Instruction in Elementary Geometry, and reappointed 

 to consider the Syllabus drawn up by the Association for the Im- 

 provement of Geometiical Teaching, and to report thereon. Drawn 

 up by Mr. Hayward. 



In a previous Eeport (Report for 1873, p. 459) the Committee recognized the 

 fact that the main practical difficulty in effecting an improvement in the 

 existing methods of teaching elementary geometry is that of reconciling the 



