﻿British Association — Section C. — President's Address. 419 



cation would take place, analogous to that described by Prof. Di-. P. 

 Martin Duncan, F.K.S., as having occurred in West Indian Corals. 



The paper was accompanied by chemical analyses and photographic 

 figures of some of the thin slices, slightly magnified. 



IT. — British Association, Plymouth, August 16th, 1877. — Section C. 

 Address to the Geological Section. By W. Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., Presi- 

 dent of the Section. 



When, as long ago as 1841, the British Association made its only pre- 

 vious visit to Plymouth, some of us, now amongst its oldest members, 

 thought ourselves too young to take any part in its proceedings. If the 

 effects of that meeting are still traceable in this district, it will be admitted, 

 of courae, that the seed then sown was of excellent quality and that it fell 

 on good soil Be this as it may, the hope may be cherished that thirty- 

 six years will not again be allowed to elapse between two consecutive visits 

 to the capital of the two south-western counties. 



One effect of this wide liiatus is the loss of almost all the human links 

 whose presence on this occasion would have pleasantly connected the 

 present with the past. A glance at the lists of Trustees and the General, 

 Sectional, and Local officers in 1841 will show that the presence of scarcely 

 one of them can be hoped for on this occasion ; and there is but little 

 probability that any of those who prepared Reports or Papers for the last 

 Plymouth Meeting will have done so for that which is now assembled. 



Nor are these the only changes. In 1841 Section C embraced, as at the 

 beginning, the Geographers as well as the Geologists ; but ten years later the 

 geographers were detached, whether to find room for themselves, or to make 

 room for the students of an older geography, it is not necessary to inquire. 



Some years afterwards came an innovation which, until entering on the 

 preparation of this address, I always regarded as a decided improvement. 

 The first Presidential Address to this Section was delivered at Leeds in 

 1858 by the late Mr. Hopkins, so well known to geologists for his able 

 application of his great mathematical powers to sundry important problems 

 in their science ; and from that time to the present, with the exception of 

 the Meetings of 1860 and 1870 only, the President of this Section has 

 delivered an address. 



None of the local geological papers read in 1841 appear to have attracted 

 so much attention as those on Lithodomous Perforations, Raised Beaches, 

 Submerged Forests, and Caverns (see Athenaeum for 7th to 2Sth of August, 

 1841); and, as an effort to connect the present with the past, I have 

 decided on taking up one of these threads, and devoting the remarks I 

 have now to offer to the History of Cavern-Exploration in Devonshire. I 

 am not unmindful that there were giants in those days ; and no one can 

 deplore more than I do our loss of Buckland and De la Beche, amongst 

 many others ; nor can I forget the enormous strides opinion has made 

 since 1841, when, in this Section, Dr. Buckland "contended that human 

 remains had never been found under such circumstances as to prove their 

 contemporaneous existence with the hysenas and bears of the Caverns," 



and added that " in Kent's Hole the Celtic knives were found in 



holes duff hy art, and which had disturbed the floor of the cave and the 

 bones below it" (Athenasum, 14th Aug. 1841, p. 626). This scepticism, 

 however, did the good service of inducing cavern explorers to conduct their 

 researches with an accuracy which should place their results, whatever they 

 might prove to be, amongst the undoubted additions to human knowledge. 



The j)rincipal Caverns in South Devon occur in the limestone districts 

 of Plymouth, Yealmpton, Brixham, Torquay, Buckfastleigh, and Chud- 

 leigh ; but as those in the last two localities have yielded nothing of im- 

 portance to the Anthropologist or the Palaeontologist, they will not be 



