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THE GEOLOGIST. 
sion of tlie dealer, visited the qnavry, bouglit, up all the bones the quarrv-men 
had, and ciiE^agud to take from them all they eoiild find, with the disstinct 
uuderstaiidiiig that no other ])ersou sliould be allowed to have any. I may 
state here tliat tliis sti]mlation did not arise from any monopolizing aequisitive- 
ness on my part, but from a regret, wliieli 1 have long felt, that entire series of 
specimens of tliis interesting character — illustrative of great geological facts, of 
bygone geographical and climatal conditions, and of extinct forms of life — 
should be so frequently separated and scattered, uo one knew whitlier ; hence 
I decided on doing my best to prevent such dispersal l)y j)urc]iasing all the 
specimens, in order to hand them over to the national collection in the Eritisli 
Museum, shotdd they prove worthy of a place tlicre. Since my first visit I 
have frecpicntly gone to the quarry, and have purchased considerable uvimbers 
of bones ; all of these, with the exception ot my last purchase, are now the 
property of the nation, and are under the care of tlic distinguished head of the 
Natm-al History department of the British Museum, by whom, I have no 
doubt, an account of tliem will be, sooner or later, given to the world, should 
he find in them any new revelations, or any confirmations or corrections of old 
and doubtful readings. 
My endeavours to presei-ve the integrity of the series have only been par- 
tially successfid. One lot has found its way to the Museum at Leeds ; another 
valuable collection has been purchased for the University Museum, at Oxford, 
by a lady, who on a former occasion manifested her interest in cavern- 
researches ; a considerable number are in the possession of Mr. Hodge, of 
Plymouth, who has very frecpently visited t he cavern, and in whom I have found 
a formidable but at the same time a most courteous rival. So far, however, as 
these cases are concerned no harm has been done — the specimens thus disposed 
of would doubtless be readily available for scientific p^irposes ; but it unfortu- 
nately happened that a glowing and marvellously eml>ellished account of tlie 
discovery appeared in the local papers, thereby awaktniing a general curiosity 
in the neighbourhood. Crowds of persons visited the quarries, and eagerly 
secured — sometimes at heavy prices — what very many of them ix-garded as 
astonishing relics, and as incontcstible proofs of the occurrence and universality 
of the Noachian deluge. Such specimens — and I have reason to believe they 
are very numerous — are probably irrecoverably lost. 
I was so fortunate as to find an old man at work in the quarries who had 
been connected with them all his lifetime. He had seen the foundation-stone 
of the Breakwater torn from the parent rock and sliipjied to be transported to 
its new bed at the bottom of Plymouth Sound. He pointed out to me the line 
of direction of Mr. Whidbey's caverns, whence it ajipeared that the new one 
was in the same line, as if the various caverns had been so many eiJarged por- 
tions of one and the same original line of fracture. 
The Oreston limestone consists of a series of beds varying from one foot to 
ten feet in tliiokness, and dipping ui a direction south fifteen degrees west, at 
an angle of about thirty-two degrees. The artificial elitf produced by the 
quarrying operations of half a century is, at present, about sixty feet high ; its 
biise is one thousand and )iinety feet from the quay, or river -margin, and fifteen 
feet above the level of high-water at spring-tides ; hence the new cavern was 
about four hundred and eighty-seven feet from Mr. Wliidbey's third caveni, five 
hundred and sixty-eight feet from the second, and nine hundred and thirty feet 
from the first — that is, the first cavern, or fissure, was one hundred and sixty 
feet from tiie river- or original face of the cliff; the second occurred three 
hundred and sixty-two feet beyond this, in the mass of the hiU ; eighty-one feet 
further, in the same direction, disclosed the tliird; and a further advance of 
four hunih-ed and eighty-seven feet brought the workmen to the fourth, i.e., 
the cavern discovered last winter. 
