W. Pengelly—Cavern Exploration in Devonshire. 305 
thin stalagmitic films. The cave-earth was of unknown depth 
near the entrances, where its base had never been reached ; but 
in the remoter parts of the cavern it did not usually exceed a 
foot, and in a few localities it “thinned out” entirely. 
6th. Beneath the cave-earth there was usually found a floor 
of stalagmite having a crystalline texture, and termed on that 
account the crystalline stalagmite. It was commonly thicker 
than the granular floor, and in one instance but little short of 
twelve feet. 
the oldest of the cavern deposits. It was composed of sub- 
angular and rounded pieces of dark-red grit, embedded ina 
sandy paste of the same color. Small angular fragments of 
limestone, and investing films of stalagmite, both prevalent in 
the cave-earth, were extremely rare. Large blocks of lime- 
Except in a very few small branches, the bottom of the 
cavern has nowhere been reached. In the cases in which there 
was no cave-earth, the granular stalagmite rested immediately 
on the crystalline ; and where the crystalline stalagmite was not 
resent the cave-earth and breccia were in direct contact. 
arge isolated masses of the crystalline stalagmite, as well as 
concreted lumps of the breccia, were occasionally met with in 
the cave-earth, thus showing that the older deposits had, in por- 
tions of the cavern, been partially broken up, dislodged, and 
re-deposited. No instance was met with of the incorporation 
in a lower bed of fragments derived from an upper one. In 
short, wherever all the deposits were found in oné and the same 
vertical section, the order of superposition was clear and invari- 
able; and elsewhere the succession, though defective, was never 
transgressed. 
Excepting the overlying blocks of limestone, of course, all 
the deposits contained remains of animals, which, however, 
called the Ovine bed, the remains of sheep being restricted to it. 
In it were also found numerous flint flakes and “ strike-lights,” 
stone spindle-whorls, fragments of curvilineal pieces of slate, 
amber beads, bone tools, including awls, chisels and combs ; 
bronze articles, such as rings, a fibula, a i a spear-head, a 
socketed celt, and a pin; pieces of smelted copper, and a great 
Am, Jour, sia eons VoL. XIV, No. 82.—OctT,, 1877. : 
