CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 583 



his acutely planned and perseveringly conducted cave exploration is recognised 

 throughout the scientific -world.' 



The accounts of the different deposits and the various remains found therein 

 are here only briefly alluded to, for the 16 yearly report's of the Kent's Cavern 

 explorations, written by William Pengelly" himself, have been published in 

 full in the Reports of the British Association. For want of time I also pass 

 over the question as to which of the implements exhumed may be considered 

 to be of the Magdalenian, Acheulean, or Chellean type. 



As long ago as 1846 William Pengelly and his friends, Mr. Vivian and Dr. 

 Battersby, received from the Torquay Natural History Society a small grant 

 to enable them to make some researches in Kent's Hole. It was visited and 

 slightly investigated by Mr. Northmore and 8ir W. Trevelyan in 1824, and 

 partially explored by the Rev. J. MacEnery in 1825, and by Mr. R. A. C. 

 Godwin-Austen in 1840. The results of these fresh investigations by William 

 Pengelly and his colleagues were communicated to their own Society and to 

 the Geological Society, and an account of all the earlier work done at the 

 cavern has been given by my father in the Transactions of the Devonshire Asso- 

 ciation. Although important result* were obtained, and it was proved that the 

 flint implenients and the remains of extinct animals did occur together in the 

 same deposits, public opinion was unprepared to accept some of the most 

 striking conclusions. It was not until nearly twenty years ha-d elapsed, and after 

 the exploration of Brixham Cavern, that a committee was appointed at the Bath 

 meeting of the British Association in 1864 for the regular exploration of the 

 cave. 



This exploration at Kent's Hole was undertaken by a committee, but, again, 

 practically almost the whole of the work fell on William Pengtelly. The 

 excavations commenced in March 1865, and were concluded in June 1880. The 

 proprietor, the late Lord Haldon, placed the cavern entirely in the aistody of 

 the committee, but since his death it has fallen into other hands. 



The cavern is about a mile ea,«t from Torquay Harbour in a small wooded 

 limestone hill on the western side of a valley which terminates about half a mile 

 southwards on the northern shore of Torbay. There are two entrances to the 

 cavern, about fifty feet apart, in the face of the same low, vertical natural cliff, 

 running nearly north and south, on the eastern side of the hill. Both these 

 entrances are about six feet in height and rather more in width, thus affording 

 easy access to the cave. 



Much ground still remained intact, although Mr. MacEnery and other 

 explorers had broken up some portions of the deposits. William Pengelly 

 therefore selected for the first attempt a part of the cavern called the Great 

 Chamber, which was not only intact, but also seemed likely to present few 

 difficulties in exploration. The material which composed the floor of the cave 

 exhibited, as a rule, the following downward succession : blocks of limestone, 

 sometimes very large, which had clearly fallen from the roof, a layer of mould, 

 almost black, ranging from only a few inches to upwards of a foot in deptli. 

 known as the black mould. Beneath this wae found a floor of granular 

 stalagmite, firmly attached to the walls, seldom less and frequently more than 

 a foot in thickness, doubtless formed by the drip of water from the roof. Next 

 a local band of black earth showing evidences of fire. Then a red cave-earth 

 or loam, containing many limestone fragments, varying in eize from bits not 

 larger than a sixpence to masses hardly less than those lying on the surface of 

 the mould ; this exhibited no signs of stratification, and contained numerous 

 interesting remains. Later the crystalline stalagmite was discovered, and the 

 oldest deposit, a breccia-detritus of Devonian grits, containing ' nodule ' tools 

 and bones of cave bear. 



When the explorations commenced, only three deposits were known, namely, 

 the black mould, succeeded by the granular stalagmite, overlying the cave- 

 earth. However, as the work proceeded, a section was laid bare, which clearly 

 showed in downward sequence the floor of granular stalagmite, then the cave- 

 earth, next the crystalline stalagmite, and finally the breccia. 



The importance of my father's discoveries in Kent's Hole of flint tools and 

 weapons rudely chipped by prehistoric man was increased by the evidence of 

 a gradual advance in the character of the implements, and" supplemented by 

 the further bringing to light of bone needles and harpoons. The revolution 



