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THE GEOLOGIST. 



ON A SECOND NEW BONE CAVERN RECENTLY DISCOVERED AT 

 BRIXHAM, DEVONSHIRE. 



By W. Pengellt, F.G.S. 



About the end of last March (1861) information was brought me of the dis- 

 covery, at Brixham, of a second new cavern, rich in fossil bones. I lost no time 

 in visiting it, and, at this and several subsequent visits, made myself acquainted 

 with the facts which form the subject of tbis paper, and which, though they 

 may add but little, probably nothing, to our knowledge, it is hoped may not 

 prove uninteresting to the section, more especially as the district has become 

 famous in its connexion with "Bone Caverns." 



The greater part of the fishing-town of Lower Brixham, or Brixham Quay, 

 as it is commonly called in the neighbourhood, but which I shall call Brixham, 

 without any qualification, occupies a valley, running nearly east and west, 

 which is separated from Torbay on the north by a limestone hill, reaching the 

 height of 150 feet above the sea, and known as Furzeham Common. The 

 southern boundary of the valley consists of four hills, forming a chain parallel 

 to Furzeham, but extending fully a mile further eastward, where it terminates 

 in the promontory of Berry Head, the southern horn of Torbay. The first, 

 that is,_the most westerly of these hills is known as Parkham Common, the 

 second is Windmill Hill — in the north- western angle of which the now celebrat ed 

 cavern was discovered in 1858; the third is Heath Hill, or Common, which 

 contains, near its north-eastern corner, the well-known " Ash-Hole," partially 

 explored, many years ago, by the Rev. Mr. McEnery and the Rev. Mr. Lyte ; the 

 fourth, that is, the most easterly hill of the chain, is that of which Berry Head 

 is the almost precipitous termination. 



Considerable limestone quarries have been worked in the Torbay slope of 

 Furzeham Hill ; one of these, known as Bench, but a short distance from 

 Brixham harbour— indeed, it is within what is legally considered to be the 

 limits of the harbour — had been all but abandoned for upwards of twenty 

 years ; recently, however, quarrying operations, on a limited scale, were resumed, 

 and led to the discovery just named. 



Fig. 1. 



Though the axis of the hill has an almost east and west direction, its coast- 

 line at Bench runs nearly west and south, and the quarry has been worked at 

 right angles to this. Fig. 1 represents a vertical east and west section of the 



