ON THE EXPLOITATION OF KENT'S CAVERN, DEVONSHIRE. 125 



feet in width — the second or innermost being the narrower. The upper 

 surface of the deposits they contained inclined inwards, falling 13 - 5 feet 

 in the 34 feet between the Bear's Den and the terminal chamber, or at a 

 mean gradient of 1 in 2'5. In the eastern wall of the first reach, about 

 16 feet from its entrance or northern end, an opening leads to a consider- 

 able undervaulting, to be subsequently described; and near the junction 

 of the reaches a small recess extends southwards about 5 feet. At the 

 end of July 1877 the two reaches only had been explored. (See ' Report 

 Brit. Assoc.,' 1877, pp. 7-8.) 



On entering the terminal chamber, its floor was found to be a complete 

 pavement of blocks of limestone, some of them of considerable size. 

 Their removal disclosed an almost horizontal bed of the typical Breccia 

 — the most ancient deposit yet found in the cavern — the thickness of 

 which was undetermined. It was excavated to the customary depth of 

 4 feet, but without reaching its base anywhere. The chamber measured 

 about 30 feet from north to south, from 7 to 13 feet from east to west, 

 and from 8 to 13 feet from the roof to the bottom of the excavation. A 

 narrow gully extended towards S.S.B. from the southern end, but became 

 too contracted for a man to pass beyond 7 feet in that direction. The 

 roof of tbe chamber was much fretted, and had several vertical and 

 almost cylindrical cavities, about a foot in diameter as well as in height. 

 The walls were very angular, and presented everywhere so much the 

 appearance of fresh fracture as to suggest that the blocks of limestone 

 forming the floor, as already stated, had fallen from them in compara- 

 tively recent times. 



The only objects of interest found in the chamber were four pieces of 

 bone (Nos. 7093-5), which occurred at depths exceeding a foot, and a 

 lump of oxide of manganese (No. 7092) found in the third foot-level. 



The recess, near the junction of the two reaches, as mentioned pre- 

 viously, was in proportion to its capacity much more productive, as it 

 yielded four "finds" (Nos. 7096-9), including 12 teeth of bear and 

 sevferal pieces of bone. One of the finds (No. 7098) occurred in the 

 Crystalline Stalagmite, and the others in the Breccia, at depths exceeding 

 a foot. 



The exploration of the Tortuous Gallery was closed on October 30,1877, 

 after having occupied very nearly 5 months. It yielded a total of 23 

 " finds," of which 15 were described in the Thirteenth Report. The entire 

 series, from first to last, included 26 teeth of bear — several of them in 

 pieces of jaws — 1 tooth of horse, several bones and pieces of bone, 3 

 bits of coarse friable black pottery, and a piece of black flint — in all pro- 

 bability a "strike-light" of the present century. The relic of horse, as 

 well as the potsherds and the strike-light, was found on the surface, 

 and very near the Bear's Den. 



The Undervault. — On the completion of the Tortuous Gal.ery, the ex- 

 ploration of the branch thrown off towards the west, from its first reach, 

 as stated above, was at once undertaken. This has been called the 

 "Undervault," as it was probably the principal "undervaulting" men- 

 tioned by Mr. MacEnery in the following passage from his Cavern Re- 

 searches (see 'Trans. Devon. Assoc.,' iii., 307-8): — "In a narrow neck 

 which, on the right hand as you enter, issues from the Bear's Den, you 

 come to a naked floor of rock (see ' Report Brit. Assoc.,' 1877, p. 7) per- 

 forated with numerous shafts or spiracles by which you descend, by the 



