a 
Exploration of Kent's Cavern, Devonshire. 375 
searches through the northern opening. It was necessary io cut 
through this mass, in order to reach and make available the en- 
trance which the committee had selected for their operations. 
This material was very carefully examined, parey. for the pur- 
pose of detecting any objects of interest which it Sig contain, 
and partly as an initiatory exercise for the 
The cavern is in no part subject to any ats Fs 5 amount 
of drip; and no portion of it is drier than the chamber selec- 
ted for le Since the commencement of the work un- 
usually heavy rains have fallen in the district, but water has en- 
tered through the roof at very few points only, and in no in- 
stance in such an amount as to produce discomfort or incon- 
venience. 
The following is the succession of deposits, in descending or- 
der, which the chamber contained. 
Ist, Huge blocks of limestone which had manifestly fallen 
from the roof. Many of them required blasting to effect their 
removal; and in several instances it was necessary to blast even 
the masses into which they were by this memos divided, One 
invested on “al sides with a stalagmitic sheet. Certain masses, 
lying at some distance from a drop, were without even a trace 
of stalagmite. 
, 2d. Beneath these limestone blocks there was a layer of mould 
of an almost black color. It varied from a few inches to up- 
ward of a foot in depth. 
d.’ Underneath the black soil came a cake of stalagmitic 
breccia, made up of comparatively small fragments of limestone 
So very firmly cemented together with carbonate of lime as oc- 
casionally to require blasting. It was rarely less, but not uan- 
frequently much more, than a foot thick. Everywhere it was 
firmly attached to ‘the walls, and it occasionally extended com- 
pletely across the cha mber. Not t unfrequently, however, the 
center of the chamber was altogether destitute of this breccia 
in some instances, because there is no drip near the area, in 
<i because it was intercepted by an overlying li 
4th. The breccia is succeeded by the ordinary aah cave- 
loam, which contains a large number of limestone fragments, 
varying in Ranh ae bits not larger than sixpences, to 
