A. H. Hunt — Kent's Cavern and BucTcland. ilT 



The importance of the differences of opinion between Buckland 

 and McEnery have been greatly exaggerated. McEnery writes : — 



" It is painful to dissent from so high an authority, and more 

 particularly so from my concurrence generally in his views of the 

 phenomena of these caves, which three years personal observation has 

 in most every instance enabled me to verify." (Trans. Dev. Assoc, vol. iii, 

 p. 338.) 



The sole point here in dispute was the mode of accretion of 

 stalagmite ; a question of the most profound indifference, as both 

 Buckland and McEnery were agreed that the bones of men were 

 absent from the 'Diluvium,' that the flint implements were introduced 

 after the extinct mammalia, and that the flints were post the 

 Noachian deluge. Where flints occurred under stalagmite Buckland 

 contended that the stalagmite had been broken through and perhaps 

 reformed. McEnery denied this, and maintained that the stalagmite 

 was continuous and intact. But, as McEnery did not limit the rate 

 of accretion, and believed the stalagmite was all posterior to the 

 Noachian deluge, the difference of opinion is of no possible 

 importance. Buckland and McEnery were equally mistaken ; and 

 McEnery's error Avas perhaps more dangerous than Buckland's. The 

 soundness of stalagmite is a question of inspection, whereas the 

 rate of growth varies immensely. Were McEnery right as to the 

 post-Diluvian age of the Kent's Cavern stalagmite, the cave would 

 be no witness for the antiquity of man. 



In 184:0 Mr. Godwin-Austen wrote : — " Human i-emains and 

 works of art .... occur throughout the entire thickness of 

 the clay." (See Trans, Dev. Assoc, vol. ii, p. 498.) 



In 1841 Dean Buckland maintained that " in Kent's Cavern 

 . . . . the Celtic knives were found in holes dug by art, and 

 which had disturbed the floor of the cave and the bones below it." 

 (Quoted Eep. B.A., 1877, p. 55.) 



In 1847 the Report of a Committee of the Torquay Natural History 

 Society was submitted by Mr. E. Vivian to the Geological Society 

 and to the British Association. Of the former Mr. Vivian writes 

 in 1859 : The paper " was considered so heterodox that its insertion 

 in the Transactions was delayed until the late lamented Dr. Buckland 

 could again visit the cavern, which he was never able to accomplish " 

 (" Cavern Researches," p. 60, note). The Council and Officers of the 

 Geological Society included De la Beche, Lyell, Owen, Sedgwick, 

 Forbes, Falconer, Murchison, and Darwin. But not Buckland. 



In Section C of the British Association at Oxford it was reported 

 that the undisturbed stalagmite three feet thick had been broken 

 through in three places, and flint knives found in each instance. 

 The President of Section C was Buckland. 



Thus, at last, the great fact of Kent's Cavern was publicly 

 advertised, under the auspices of Buckland, who did not, as did the 

 Geological Society, postpone the publication for further enquiry. 



Long after Buckland's death, the British Association spent sixteen 

 years and nearly £2,000 in breaking up the stalagmite of Kent's 

 Cavern, and removing the subjacent four feet of deposits. Hundreds 



