516 



Abstract of 'Mr. J. Prestwich's Report on [June 20, 



In dealing with the theoretical questions connected with the subject, they 

 will be restricted to those alone which are suggested by the local nature of 

 the phenomena. 



The main gallery of the cavern was that which extended southwards 

 from the entrance for a distance of 135 feet, and was termed the Rein- 

 deer Gallery. From the left of this, and at a short distance from the 

 entrance, is a small inclined passage 40 feet long, and called the " Steep 

 Slide Hole." From the Reindeer Gallery further on branches on the right 

 the Flint-knife Gallery, which runs westward, and terminates in the West 

 Chamber, from which other short galleries, known as the Pen, Keeping's, 

 and Mundy's galleries, proceed, and connected with them is the South 

 Chamber. These chambers were found to have three other external 

 openings, which, like the original entrance from the road, had all become 

 blocked up by fallen debris. 



When first opened, all the galleries and chambers were found to be more 

 or less filled with the following deposits, in descending order : — 



1st. A layer of stalagmite, varying from a few inches to upwards of a 

 foot in thickness. 



2nd. Reddish cave-earth, with angular fragments and blocks of lime- 

 stone in places, generally averaging from 2 to 4 feet. 

 3rd. Water-worn shingle, 2 to 6 feet. 



In addition to these, a thin layer of peaty or carbonaceous matter 

 extended on the cave-earth from near the entrance to a distance of 40 feet, 

 and was overlain part of the distance by a limestone breccia. 



The stalagmite was not of constant occurrence ; the Flint-knife Gallery 

 was almost free of it. 



In places the galleries were completely choked up by the cave-earth 

 rising to the ceiling, as in the West Chamber and part of the Flint-knife 

 Gallery. A few pebbles, the same as those composing the underlying 

 shingle bed, were occasionally found in the cave-earth, together with 

 fragments of stalagmite, — portions, apparently, of an old destroyed stalag- 

 mite floor. These latter were extremely numerous in the West Chamber 

 and adjacent part of the Flint-knife Gallery, and also in the Steep Slide 

 Hole, where no stalagmite floor existed. 



The basement, or shingle bed, consisted of pebbles of limestone, quartz, 

 greenstone, grit, and shale, all derived from rocks of the Brixham district. 

 In* one part of the Flint-knife Gallery the gravel rested on a continuous 

 limestone floor, but elsewhere its base was not reached, the fissures con- 

 tracting to a wedge too narrow to allow of working them out to the bottom. 



The section of the Reindeer Gallery may be likened to the irregular 

 figure of a skate, with double pectoral fins — the shingle bed filling the 

 space represented by the tail, or a little more, and the cave-earth extending 

 usually about halfway up the body. The pectoral fins represent the 

 position of two sets of longitudinal grooves, which Mr. Pengelly states to 

 extend the whole length of the cave, with a general slight dip in a given 



