﻿Section C. — Address by Mr. W. Pengelly, President. 421 



about 90 feet from N.N.E. to S.S.W. It commenced at about 8 feet 

 below the surface of the plateau, continued thence to the base of the cliff, 

 but how much further was not known, and its ascertained height was 

 about 52 feet. It was 2 feet wide at top, whence it gradually widened 

 to 10 feet at bottom. The roof, judging from that part which had not 

 been destroyed, was a mass of limestone-breccia, made vip of large angular 

 fragments, cemented with carbonate of lime, and requiring to be blasted 

 as much as ordinary limestone. The Cavern was completely filled with 

 deposits of various kinds. 



The uppermost 8 feet consisted of loose angular pieces of limestone, 

 none of which exceeded 101b. in weight, mixed with a comparatively small 

 amount of such sand as is common in dolomitized limestone districts, but 

 without a trace of stalagmite or fossil of any kind. The 32 feet next 

 below were occupied with similar materials, with the addition of a con- 

 siderable quantity of tough, dark, unctuous clay. Between this mass and 

 the outer wall of the cavern was a nearly vertical plate of stalagmite, 

 usually about 2 feet thick, and containing, at by no means wide intervals, 

 firmly cemented masses of breccia identical in composition with the 

 adjacent bed just mentioned. The bones the caverns yielded were all 

 found within these 32 feet ; and were met with equally in the loose and 

 the coherent breccia, as well as in the stalagmite. A somewhat^ consider- 

 able number of ellipsoidal balls of clay, from 1-5 to 2-5 inches in greatest 

 diameter, occurred in the clay o-f this bone-bed, but not elsewhere. Still 

 lower was a mass of dark, tough, unctuous clay, containing a very few, 

 small, angular stones, but otherwise perfectly homogeneous, and known to 

 be 12 feet deep, but how much more was undetermined. 



The osseous remains found at Oreston prior to 1858 have bee© described 

 by Sir E. Home, Mr. Clift, Dr. Buckland, Professor Owen, Mr. Busk, and 

 others. Th-e animals represented were Ursus priscus, U. spelceus, 

 Weasel (?), Wolf, Fox, Cave Hyaena, Cave Lion, Rhinoceros Uptorlnnus, 

 EqnihS. fossilis, E. plicidens,. Asinus fossilis^ Bison minor, Bos longifrons, 

 and, according to the late Mr. Bellamy, Mammoth and HipjDopotamus 

 (see Nat. Hist, of S. Devon, 1839, p. 82). With regard to Hippopota- 

 mus, I can only say that I have never met with satisfactory evidence 

 of its occurrence in Devonshire ; but the Mammoth was certainly found 

 at Oreston in 1858 ; and, unless I am greatly in error, remains of Rhino- 

 ceros tichorhinus were also met with then, and lodged by me in the British 

 Museum. It may be added that the skull and other relics of Hog were 

 exhumed on that occasion, and now belong to my collection. There was 

 nothing to suggest that the cavern had been the home of the Hyaena ; and 

 whilst I fully accept Dr. Buckland's opinion that the animals- had fallen 

 into the open fissures and there perished, and that the remains had sub- 

 sequently been washed thence iiato the lower vaultings (Reliq. Dil. 2nd ed. 

 1834, p. 78), I venture to add that some of the animals may have retired 

 thither to die ; a few may have been dragged or pursued there by beasts 

 of prey \ whilst rains^ such as are not quite unknown m Devonshire in the 

 present day, probably washed in some of the bones of such as died near at 

 hand on the adjacent plateau. Nothing appears to have been met with 

 suggestive of human visits.. 



Kent's Hole. — About a mile due east from Torquay harbour and half a 

 mile north from Torbay, there is a small wooded limestone hill, the eastern 

 side of which is, for the uppermost 30 feet, a vertical cliff, having at its 

 base, and 54 feet apart, two apertures leading into one and the same vast 

 cavity in the interior of the hill, and known as Kent's Hole or Cavern. 

 These openings are about 200 feet above mean sea-level, and from them 

 the hill slopes rapidly to the valley at its foot, at a level of from 60 to 70 

 feet below. 



