DEVONSHIRE. 127 



The Great Oven. — The narrow branch of the Cavern connecting the 

 Cave of Inscriptions -with the Bear's Den, by passing from the southern 

 side of the former to the north-western corner of the Den, is known as 

 the " Great Oven." It consists of three reaches — the western, opening 

 out of the Cave of Inscriptions ; the central ; and the eastern, opening out 

 of the Bear's Den. They are all, and especially the central reach, very 

 contracted in both height and width. The western reach was explored in 

 1875 (see ' Report Brit. Assoc' for 1876, pp. 2-3), the central one does not 

 appear to have ever contained deposits of any kind, and the eastern 

 reach occupied the Committee from December 18, 1877, to February 15 

 1878. 



At its junction with the Bear's Den, the eastern reach had a continuous 

 unfractured floor of stalagmite of great thickness, and, with the exception 

 of a thin upper layer, all belonging to the Crystalline or most ancient 

 variety ; whilst at the southern angle was a boss of the same material fully 

 5 feet high. Beneath this floor lay the deposit termed the Breccia ; but 

 at 6 feet from the entrance, and thence onward, Cave-earth presented itself 

 between the two stalagmites. At first it was found adjacent to the 

 northern wall only, and in a depression in the surface of the Crystalline 

 Stalagmite, but it soon extended itself from wall to wall, and for a few 

 feet the successive sections were in descending order. 



1. Granular stalagmite, a few inches thick only. 



2. Cave-earth, also but a few inches thick. 



3. Crystalline stalagmite, from 2 to 3 feet thick. 



4. Breccia, the base of which was nowhere reached. 



At about 10 feet from the entrance the lowest two deposits occupied so 

 narrow a slit that all attempts to excavate them were abandoned ; and from 

 that point to the inner end of the reach, the Granular Stalagmite varied 

 from 6 to 12 inches in thickness, and the Cave-earth from 6 to 24 inches. 



The length of this reach of the Great Oven was 34 feet, and its width 

 varied from 10 feet at the outer to 3 feet at the inner end. It may be 

 described as a narrow oblique slit in the limestone. 



It yielded a total of 29 "finds," 2 of them in the Granular or least 

 ancient Stalagmite, 16 in the Cave-earth, 2 in the Crystalline Stalagmite, 



and 9 in the Breccia. The animal remains included 36 teeth of bear of 



which 20 were in the Cave-earth, 1 in the Crystalline Stalagmite, and 15 in 

 the Breccia — 8 of hysena, and 3 of fox. The only relics found in the 

 Breccia were those or bear. The presence of the hyama was also attested 

 by a few coprolites in the Cave-earth. 



The only noteworthy "find," perhaps, was No. 7138, which included 

 an almost perfect left lower jaw of hysena, 2 detached teeth of hyaena ; 

 5 teeth of bear ; a few bones, including a perfect left radius ; pieces of 

 bone ; and a few coprolites. This " find " was met with in the first foot- 

 level, in the cave-earth, on January 30,1878. 



A total of 40 " finds " was met with in the two reaches of the Oven, in 

 1875 and 1878 together; 2 of them were in the Granular Stalagmite, 18 in 

 the Cave-earth, 2 in the Crystalline Stalagmite, and 18 in the Breccia. The 

 relics in the Cave-earth included 20 teeth of bear, 9 of hysena, and 3 of 

 fox, whilst those of the Crystalline Stalagmite and the Breccia included 

 25 teeth of bear. 



Nothing indicating the presence of man was detected in any part of 

 the Great Oven. 



