British Association — Section C. — P resident' s Address. 419 
cation would take place, analogous to that described by Prof. Dr. P. 
Martin Duncan, F.R.S., as baving occurred in West Indian Corals. 
The paper was accompanied by Chemical analyses and photographic 
figures of some of the tbin slices, slightly magnified. 
IT. — British Association, Plymouth, August 16th, 1877. — Section C. 
Address to the Geological Section. By W. Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., Presi- 
dent of the Section. 
When, as long ago as 1841, the British Association made its only pre- 
vious visit to Plymouth, some of us, now amongst its oldest members, 
thought ourselves too young to take any part in its proceedings. If the 
eflects of that meeting are still traceable in this district, it will be admitted, 
of course, that the seed then sown was of excellent quality and that it feil 
on good soil. Be this as it may, the hope may be cherished that thirty- 
six years will not again be allowed to elapse betweentwo consecutive visits 
to the Capital of the two south- western counties. 
One effect of this wide hiatus is the loss of almost all the human links 
wbose presence on this occasion would have pleasantly connected the 
present with the past. A glance at the lists of Trustees and the General, 
Sectional, and Local officers in 1841 will show that the presence of scarcely 
one of them can be hoped for on this occasion ; and there is but little 
probability that any of those who prepared Reports or Papers for the last 
Plymouth Meeting will have done so for that which is now assembled. 
Nor are these the only changes. In 1841 Section C embraced, as at the 
beginning, the Geographers as well as the Geologists ; but ten years later the 
geographers were detached, whether to find room for themselves, or to make 
room for the students of an older geography, it is not necessary to inquire. 
Some years afterwards came an innovation which, until entering on the 
preparation of this address, I always regarded as a decided improvement. 
The first Presidential Address to this Section was delivered at Leeds in 
1858 by the late Mr. Hopkins, so well kuown to geologists for his able 
application of his great mathematical powers to sundry important problems 
in their Science ; and from that time to the present, with the exceptiou of 
the Meetings of 1860 and 1870 only, the President of this Section has 
delivered an address. 
None of the local geological papers read in 1841 appear to have attracted 
so much attention as those on Lithodomous Perforations, Raised Beaches, 
Submerged Forests, and Caverns (see Athenseum for 7th to 28th of August, 
1841); and, as an effort to connect the present with the past, I have 
decided on taking up one of these threads, and devoting the remarks I 
have now to offer to the History of Cavern-Exploration in Devonshire. I 
am not unmindful that there were giants in those days ; and no one can 
deplore more than I do our loss of Buckland and De la Beche, amongst 
many others ; nor can I forget the enormous strides opinion has made 
since 1841, when, in this Section, Dr. Buckland “contended that human 
remains had never been found under such circumstances as to prove their 
contemporaneous existence with the hyseuas and bears of the Caverns,” 
and added that “ in Kent’s Hole the Celtic knives were found in 
holes dug by art, and which had disturbed the floor of the cave and the 
bones below it” (Athenseum, 14th Aug. 1841, p. 626). This scepticism, 
however, did the good Service of inducing cavern explorers to conduct their 
researches with au accuracy which should place their results, whatever they 
might prove to be, amongst the undoubted additions to human knowledge. 
The principal Caverns in South Devon occur in the limestone districts 
of Plymouth, Yealmpton, Brixham, Torquay, Buckfastleigh, and Chud- 
leigh ; but as those in the last two localities have yielded nothing of im- 
portauce to the Anthropologist or the Palseontologist, they will not be 
