KENT'S CAVERN, TORQUAY 347 



KENT'S CAVERN, TORQUAY. 



Report of Committee appointed to co-operate with the Torquay Natural 

 History Society in investigating Kent's Cavern (Sir A. Keith, F.R.S., 

 Chairman ; Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A., Secretary ; Mr. 

 M. C. BuRKiTT, Miss D. A. E. Garrod, Mr. A. D. Lacaille). 



The following report has been received from the excavators : — 



Work was recommenced on October 25, 1937, and continued until 

 March 28, 1938, when, having excavated to a depth of 34 ft. below the 

 datum line (the lowest point ever yet reached in the exploration of the 

 Cavern), it appeared as though, through a distinct falling off in the number 

 of finds, it would not be sufficiently profitable to go deeper considering 

 the difficulty of working between rocks, and the time involved in getting 

 the material brought to the surface. It was decided to close for the 

 season, and next year to make a drive from the ' Vestibule ' to the * Sloping 

 Chamber.' 



Flints have been very scarce, nothing worth recording having been 

 found, but fortunately several good bones and teeth were secured, in- 

 cluding an ante-penultimate milk molar of a mammoth in fine condition, 

 a large specimen of the base of a rhinoceros horn, two vertebrae of a 

 salmon, which is quite new to Kent's Cavern, the humerus and furculum 

 of a bird similar to a mallard ; but the most striking finds were a meta- 

 tarsal bone of a bison with two each of the first and second phalanges, 

 all of which articulate perfectly, which, so far as is known, is the first 

 instance of more than three bones being found together capable of arti- 

 culation ; teeth of horse, hyena, deer, rhinoceros, Irish deer, bear, and 

 bison were also fairly numerous ; coprolites were scarce. 



Arthur H. Ogilvie. B. N. Tebbs. 



The Committee applies for re-appointment, with a further grant of £5 

 toward the cost of unskilled labour to assist the voluntary excavators. 



TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENTS. 



Report of Committee on Transplant Experiments (Sir Arthur Hill, 

 K.C.M.G., F.R.S., Chairman; Dr. W. B. Turrill, Secretary; 

 Prof. F. W. Oliver, F.R.S., Prof. E. J. Salisbury, F.R.S., Prof. 

 A. G. Tansley, F.R.S.). 



. The experiments are being continued at Potterne, Wiltshire, along the lines 

 suggested by the Committee. Meetings have been held at Kew and at 

 Potterne. A fifth biennial report has been accepted for publication in the 

 Journal of Ecology, and a summary of results for the first ten years of the 

 experiments has also been prepared and is to be published in the same 

 periodical. 



A grant of £5 was made at the Nottingham Meeting. Most of this has 



