1872.] 



the Exploration of Brixham Cave. 



515 



Burdett Coutts, of £5 from Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, of £5 from R. 



Arthlington, Esq., and by a further grant of £100 from the Donation 



Fund of the Royal Society. 



A Committee of the Geological Society was thereupon appointed to 

 direct, and a local committee named to carry out the work of exploration. 

 It is, however, to Mr. Pengelly that the Committee are indebted for the 

 constant, close superintendence of the work, and for the record of each 

 day's proceedings, — assistance without which it would not have been pos- 

 sible to have carried through this investigation. 



The work was commenced in July 1858, and was sufficiently advanced 

 by the following September to enable Dr. Falconer, Professor Ramsay, and 

 Mr. Pengelly to report highly satisfactory progress, and to state that " one 

 result of great interest had been brought out, namely, the superposition of 

 undoubted remains of the Reindeer above the so-called ' Flint Knives/ 

 from which the inference arose that the 'Reindeer' continued to be an 

 inhabitant of Britain after the appearance of man in this island.' " 



In November 1858, by permission of the late Sir R. I. Murchison, a plan 

 and sections of the cave were made by Mr. Bristow, of the Geological 

 Survey, and these were completed by Mr. Bovey, of Brixham, at the con- 

 clusion of the exploration. 



Brixham stands at the entrance of a narrow valley which runs about three 

 miles inland. The hills on either side consist of Devonian Limestone dip- 

 ping northward, and rise to the height of from 170 to 190 feet, while higher 

 up the valley traverses Devonian slates and grits. On the slope of Windmill 

 Hill, on the south side of the valley, and at a height of 94 feet above high- 

 water mark, is the entrance to the cave, the galleries of which follow the 

 direction of the two sets of joints traversing these strata — the one 

 running nearly magnetic north and south, and the other being at nearly 

 right angles to it. The several galleries of the cave were found to extend 

 135 feet from north to south, and 100 feet from east to west ; and although 

 the passages became so contracted at the end that further progress was 

 stayed, it is a question whether the ramifications of the cavern do not 

 extend deeper into the hill. 



The work of exploration was completed in the summer of 1859, and it 

 was hoped, but for his untimely death, that the late Dr. Falconer would 

 have furnished the Society both with an account of the organic remains 

 and with the general report. As it is, Mr. Busk kindly undertook the 

 former, and I, as Treasurer of the Committee, was deputed to furnish the 

 latter, while Mr. Evans examined and reported on the flint implements 

 found in the cave — the whole being based on Mr. Pengelly's observations 

 and collections. 



The object of this investigation is necessarily to put on record, in a form 

 available for future examination, information of that special and exact 

 character which, from the costly nature of the work and the variety of 

 subjects connected with it, places it generally beyond individual research. 



2 p 2 



