171 
Now I wish to examine how all this mass of cave-earth 
entered the cavern ? When I first visited the place in 1869, 
under the guidance of Mr. Pengelly, it was supposed that there 
were only two entrances to Kent’s Hole on the eastern side of 
the cavern hill, fifty-four feet apart, and nearly on the same 
level, about two hundred feet from the level of mean tide, and 
from sixty to seventy feet above the bottom of the adjacent 
valley in the same vertical plane. Under these circum- 
stances it seems to have been concluded “that at least 
the great bulk of it was washed in through the two 
external entrances, because there is no other channel of ingress. }> * 
But it seems now uncertain whether these are the only two 
entrances, as in about the furthest point to which the excava- 
tions have been extended Mr. Pengelly pointed out to us, from 
the deflection of the flame of a candle, that a current of air was 
entering from some yet unexplored communication with the 
surface. This leads to some doubt about the whole explana- 
tion. Indeed, the admissions made by the committee in various 
places quite confirm the idea of violent disturbance of the con- 
tents of the cavern having at intervals taken place. 
Accordingto Mr. Pengelly, the hypothesis that best explains 
the facts is this, that at the time the cave-earth was carried into 
the cavern it was introduced in very small instalments or minute 
quantities at a time, and after some interval a further quantity ; 
and so on. In the intervals the cave was inhabited by wild 
animals and by men, not jointly but alternately ” But I read 
in the Fourth Report (p. o), “ The older flooi’, of which the 
masses of old stalagmite are obviously remnants, appears to 
have been brolcen up by being fractured along planes at right 
and other high angles to its upper and lower surfaces.” But 
if so, the remains of man and of animals must surely have been 
borne along likewise in heterogeneous confusion ; and I must 
confess that, notwithstanding all the explanations of my guide, 
and statements such as are found in the numerous works on the 
subject, such was the impression left upon my mind. If the 
reader will study the above desci'iption of these entrances, and 
* But it seems probable, according to McEnery, that the ancient apertures 
were not confined to the actual inlets . It has been already remarked that 
the sewer-like passages which traverse the body of the deposit, as well as the 
sallyports, appear to have once opened in the sides (a strong current of air cir- 
culates through them), though vie have not yet succeeded in discovering their 
exits, owing to the accumulation of rubble or their being masked by the 
growth of copsewood. 
[It has only been by long investigation that I have discovered these con- 
firmations of my original impressions, which will account for the mode in 
which I present them.] 
t The Cave Men, &c., p. 143, Part ii. 1875. 
