W. Pengelly—Cavern Exploration in Devonshire. 887 
breadth enough where narrowest—as at Bernardston—for a 
clear sea good for growing corals and crinoids. Whether Pro: 
fessor Hitchcock’s Lisbon and Lyman groups, which he refers 
to the Huronian, are not to be included, remains to be ascer- 
tained, as indicated on page 817 of this volume. Addin 
them, it would follow that the Connecticut bay or channel of 
the Helderberg era covered a large part of Northern New Hamp- 
shire, and was connected with a great area in Maine marked off 
by the occurrence of Helderberg and Devonian fossils. 
Art. XLIV.— History of Cavern Exploration in Devonshire, 
England ; by W. PENGELLY, F.R.S., F.G.S., President of the 
Geological Section of the British Association at Plymouth. 
[Continued from page 308.] 
Brixham Cavern.—Early in 1858.an unsuspected cavern was 
broken into by quarrymen at the northwestern angle of Wind- 
mill Hill at Brixham, at a point seventy-five feet above the 
surface of the street, almost vertically below, and 100 feet above 
mean tide. On being found to contain bones, a lease in it was 
secured for the Geological Society of London, who appatiten 
& committee of their members to undertake its exploration ; 
funds were voted by the Royal Society, and supplemented by 
private subscriptions; the conduct of the investigation was 
Intrusted to Mr. Prestwich and myself; and the work, under 
my superintendance, as the only resident member of the 
committee, was begun in July, 1858, and completed at mid- 
1859. 
e cavern, comprised within a space of 135 feet from north 
to south, and 100 from east to west, consisted of a series of 
tunnel galleries from six to eight feet in greatest width, and 
ten to fourteen feet in height, with two small chambers and 
five external entrances.. 
The deposits, in descending order, were :— 
Ist, or uppermost; a floor of stalagmite, from a few inches 
to a foot thick, and continuous over very considerable areas, 
but not throughout the entire cavern. 
_ 2d. A mass of small angular fragments of limestone, cemented 
into a firm concrete with carbonate of lime, commenced at the 
principal entrance, which it completely filled, and whence it 
extended thirty-four feet only. It was termed the first bed. 
3d. A layer of blackish matter, about twelve feet long, and 
nowhere more than a foot thick, occurred immediately beneath 
the first bed, and was designated the second bed. 
