376 Exploration of Kent's Cavern, Devonshire. 
masses but little smaller than those which lay on the surface. 
They lie at all angles without anything like symmetrical arrange- 
ment. In fact the entire deposit is without any approach to 
stratification. Many of the stones are partially encrusted with 
ealcareous matter, and not unfrequently loam, stones, and splin- 
ters of bones are cemented by the same substance into a very 
tough breccia. The presence of a calcareous drip is more or less 
traceable everywhere. Hitherto the cave-earth has been exca- 
vated to the depth of four feet only. How far it extends below 
this, or what may be beneath it, is at present unknown. Where 
it is not covered with the stalagmitic breccia, the black soil lies 
ases 
considerable interval of time must have elapsed between the fal 
of two blecks lying one on the other—an interval sufticiently 
of dimensions in the roof arising from ehanges of tempera 
ture; but the fact that the cavern temperature is all but con- 
stant throughout the year, seems fatal to this hypothesis. 
The masses lying on the surface were a sufficient guaran 
that the deposits beneath them remained intact. There can be 
The fall of the blocks has sometimes been attributed to changes 
