488 OSSIFEROUS CAVE OP BRIXHAM. 



securing good specimens, than to a record of their relative 

 association and the order of succession in which they 

 occurred. The remains have heen, in some instances, hud- 

 dled together in provincial collections — the contents of five 

 or six distinct caves, without a discriminative mark to indi- 

 cate out of which particular cavern they came. Another 

 consequence has heen, that being regarded in the light of 

 duplicates, the contents of some of the most important and 

 classical English caverns have been dispersed piecemeal ; 

 and so far as regards them the evil is now beyond remedy. 



' My object in this communication is to bring to the notice 

 of the Council an interesting case of a newly-discovered and 

 intact cavern, where the mischief done elsewhere may be 

 partly retrieved, and probably much effected by combined 

 action, well directed. 



' Within the last month a new and undisturbed cave has 

 been discovered on "Windmill Hill, overhanging Brixham, in 

 the same tract of limestone in which the caverns of Kent's 

 Hole, Anstey's Cove, Chudleigh, and Berry-Head are found. 

 I annex a brief notice of the discovery, cut out of the Exeter 

 " Western Times " of the 10th ultimo. Mr. Everest and myself 

 went to see it on the 17th ultimo. Windmill Hill rises im- 

 mediately above Bolton Street in Brixham. The limestone 

 strata crop out on the NE. side, where they are very cavern- 

 ous. A vertical channel, running up the hill, marks the base 

 of a fault, the walls being separated by a seam of about two 

 inches of yellowish loam. Near its base, in quarrying out 

 a foundation for cottag-es, a concealed cavern was disclosed, 

 blocked up by loam, rubbish, and breccia, on removing which 

 an open cavity was seen, low and narrow at the mouth, but 

 exjmnding inwards, and presenting the usual characters of 

 the Plymouth Limestone caves. Water percolates from above 

 by a copious drift, and the vault and floor are irregularly 

 coated with stalagmite. On a shelving stalagmite ten-ace 

 in the interior we saw from a distance a pair of large cer- 

 vine horns, horizontally embedded in the stalagmite, and I 

 distinguished bones of Hyaena, Bear, Bos, Deer, and Horse, 

 which had been picked out of the breccia. The interior of 

 the cavern is blocked up by stalagmitic deposit, but from 

 the hollow sound yielded on percussion it would appear that 

 there are under-vaultings, as in Kent's Hole. In another 

 direction the stalagmitic flooring descends suddenly in a 

 chasm of undetermined depth. There are two external open- 

 ings nearly at the same level, a considerable distance apart, 

 which would seem to communicate with the same interior 

 hollow ; and it is probable that like Kent's Hole the Brixham 

 Cave is of great extent, with irregular ramifications. As in 



