369 
KENT’S HOLE. 
By W. BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., FJl.S. 
T he systematic exploration of Kent’s Hole, under the auspices 
of the British Association, has been carried on since the 
year 1865, and is likely to prove a 'piece de resistance for a very 
long time to come. Up to the present time it has yielded upwards 
of fifty thousand bones, and a large number of other objects of 
interest ; it has also afforded evidence of extremely high value 
as to the enormous antiquity of the human race. It has, how- 
ever, fared badly in the sporadic fashion in which it has been 
laid before the public, the only authentic accounts being the 
reports of progress furnished by the Kent’s Hole Committee, 
from which it is almost impossible to gather an adequate idea 
of the cave and its wonderful contents. It would indeed almost 
seem as if the exploration were attended by a fatality that 
forbids the public from acquiring any exact knowledge until a 
great deal of the interest is lost, for the admirable investigations 
of Mr. McEnery, begun in 1824, were not published until 1859, 
and even then in a very disconnected fashion. To supply this 
need as far as may be, by adding the information in the Eeports 
to that contained in the notes above alluded to, and thus to con- 
struct a connected story, is the object of the following outlines. 
Kent’s Hole has been known from time immemorial, but 
until the year 1824 it was not rifled of any of its treasures, 
when it was visited by Mr. Northmore for the purpose of ascer- 
taining whether it were or were not a Mithratic cavern ; for 
the Druidical priesthood, like their Egyptian, Chaldean, and Brah- 
minical brethren, worshipped, in such cavernous recesses, whether 
artificial or natural, the Solar Grod.”"^ He expressly states also 
that he wished to discover organic remains, for the excitement 
consequent on Dr. Buckland’s discoveries in Kirkdale and other 
* Cavern Besearclies,” by tlie Bcv. J. HcEiicry, Edited by E. Vivian, 
1859. 
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