TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 01 



Cave was 30 yards long and G yards broad. Below a recent accumulation, 4 feet 

 deep, of loam aud earth, with laud and marine shells, bones of the domestic fowl 

 and of Man, pottery, and various implements, lay a true Cave-earth, abounding in 

 the remains of Elephant. Professor Owen, who identified, from this lower bed, 

 relics of Badger, Polecat, Stoat, Water- Vole, Rabbit, and Reindeer, remarks, that 

 for the first good evideuce of the Reindeer in this island ho had been indebted to 

 Mr. Bartlett, who stated that the remains were found in this Cavern (see Brit. 

 Foss. Mam. 184G, pp. 109-110, 113-114, 116, 204, 212, 479-480). I have made 

 numerous visits to the spot, which, when Mr. Lyte began his diggings, must have 

 been a shaft-like fissure, accessible from the top only. A lateral opening, however, 

 has been quarried into it ; there is a narrow tunnel extending westward, in which 

 the deposit is covered with a thick sheet of stalagmite, and where one is tempted 

 to believe that a few weeks labour might be well invested. 



Brixham Cavern. — Early in 1858 an unsuspected Cavern was broken into by 

 quarrymen at the north-western angle of Windmill Hill at Brixham, at a point 

 75 feet above the surface of the street almost vertically below, and 100 feet above 

 mean tide. On being found to contain bones, a lease in it was secured for the 

 Geological Society of Loudon, who appointed a Committee of their members to 

 imdertake its exploration ; funds were voted by the Royal Society, and supple- 

 mented by private subscriptions ; the conduct of the investigation was intrusted to 

 Mr. Prestwich and myself ; and the work, under my superintendence, as the only 

 resident member of "the Committee, was begun in July 1858 and completed at 

 midsummer 1859. 



The Cavern, comprised within a space of 135 feet from north to south, and 100 

 from east to west, consisted of a series of tunnel galleries from 6 to 8 feet in 

 greatest width, aud 10 to 14 feet in height, with two small Chambers and five 

 external entrances. 



The deposits, in descending order, were : — 



1st, or uppermost. A Floor of Stalagmite, from a few inches to a foot thick, and 

 continuous over very considerable areas, but not throughout the entire Cavern. 



2nd. A mass of small angular fragments of limestone, cemented into a firm con- 

 crete with carbonate of lime, commenced at the principal entrance, which it com- 

 pletely filled, and whence it extended 34 feet only. It was termed the First Bed. 



3rd. A layer of blackish matter, about 12 feet long, and nowhere more than a 

 foot thick, occurred immediately beneath the First Bed, and was designated the 

 Second Bed. 



4th. A red, tenacious, clayey loam, containing a large number of angular and 

 subangular fragments of limestone, varying from very small bits to blocks a ton in 

 weight, made up the Third Bed. Pebbles of trap, quartz, and limestone were some- 

 what prevalent, whilst nodules of brown hematite of iron and blocks of stalagmite 

 were occasionally met with in it. The usual depth of the bed was from 2 to 4 feet, 

 but this was exceeded by 4 or 5 feet in two localities. 



5th. The Third Bed lay immediately on an accumulation of pebbles of quartz, 

 greenstoue, grit, and limestone, mixed with small fragments of shale. The depth 

 of this, known as the Fourth or Gravel Bed, was undetermined; for, excepting a 

 few feet only, the limestone bottom was nowhere reached. There is abundant 

 evidence that this bed, as well as a stalagmitic floor which had covered it, had been 

 partially broken up and dislodged before the introduction of the Third Bed. 



Organic remains were found in the Stalagmitic Floor aud in each of the beds 

 beneath it, with the exception of the Second only ; but as 95 per cent, of the whole 

 series occurred iu the Third, this was not unfrequently termed the Bone Bed. 



The Mammals represented in the Stalagmite were Bear, Reindeer, Rhinoceros 

 / iehorhinus, Mammoth, and Cave Lion. 



The First Bed yielded Bear and Fox only. 



In the Third Bed were found relics of. Mammoth, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Horse, 

 Bos primigenius, B. longifrons, Red Deer, Reindeer, Roebuck, Cave Lion, Cave 

 Ilyama, Cave Bear, Grizzly Bear, Brown Bear, Fox, Hare, Rabbit, Lagomys 

 spelaus, Water- Vole, Shrew, Polecat, and Weasel. 



