300 W. Pengelly— Cavern Exploration in Devonshire. 
176-182). This request was cheerfully complied with, and 
Mr. Whidbey had the pleasure of discovering bone-caves in 
November, 1816, November, 1820, August and November, 
1822, and of sending the remains found in them to the Royal 
Society. 
Cavern was not discovered until 1821. British cave-hunting 
appears to have been a science of Devonshire birtn. 
The Oreston Caverns soon attracted a considerable number 
of able observers; they were visited in 1822 by Dr. Buckland 
and Mr, Warburton ; and in a comparatively short time became 
the theme of a somewhat voluminous literature. Nothing of 
importance, however, seems to have been met with from 1822 
until 1858, when another cavern, containing a large number © 
bones, was broken into. Unfortunately, there was no one at 
hand to superintend the exhumation of the specimens; the 
work was left entirely to the common workmen, and was badly 
done; many of the remains were dispersed beyond recovery ; 
the matrix in which they were buried was never adequately 
examined ; and we are utterly ignorant, and must for ever 
remain so, as to whether they did or did not contain indications 
of buman existence. I visited the spot from time to time, an 
bought up everything to be met with; but other scientific work 
In another part of the county occupied me too closely to allow 
more than an occasional visit. The greater part of the speci- 
mens I secured were lodged in the British Museum, where they 
seem to have been forgotten, while a few remain in my private 
collection. 
original rock, and overgrown with ” (Phil, Trans., 1822, 
pp. 171-240). ee ee eee 
