REPORT ON THE EXPLORATION OF BRIXHAM CAVE. 
473 
“ ‘ Windmill Hill ’ rises immediately above Bolton Street, in Brixham. The limestone 
strata crop out on the N.E. side, where they are very cavernous. A vertical channel run- 
ning up the hill marks the line of a fault (joint'?), the walls being separated by a seam 
of about 2 inches of yellowish loam. Near its base, in quarrying out a foundation for 
cottages, a concealed cavern was discovered blocked up by loam, rubbish, and breccia — 
on removing which an open cavity was seen, low and narrow at the mouth, but expanding 
inwards, and presenting the usual characters of the Plymouth limestone caves ; tvater 
percolates from above with a copious drip, and the vault and floor are irregularly coated 
wflth stalagmite. On a shelving stalagmitic terrace in the interior we saw from a distance 
a pair of large Cervine horns horizontally imbedded in the stalagmite ; and I distinguished 
bones of Hycena , Bear , Bos , Beer , and Horse which had been picked out of the breccia. 
The interior of the cavern is blocked up by stalagmitic deposit ; but from the hollow 
sound yielded on percussion, it would appear that there are undervaultings as in Kent’s 
Hole. In another direction the stalagmite flooring descends suddenly in a chasm of 
undetermined depth. There are two external openings nearly at the same level, a con- 
siderable distance apart, which would seem to communicate with the same interior 
hollow ; and it is probable that, like Kent’s Hole, the Brixham Cave is of great extent 
with irregular ramifications. As in other similar cases, the principal deposit of fossil 
bones may be looked for under the stalagmitic floor not yet touched. 
“ Taking into account the vast richness of Kent’s Hole in fossil remains, the dispersion 
of Mr. M c En t ery’s collections, and the grievous fate of the MS. labours of about twenty 
years of his life*, it is submitted to the Council whether there is not a prospect of equal 
wealth in this promising and adjoining cave of Brixham, and whether the case is not 
one deserving of a combined effort among geologists to organize operations for having 
it satisfactorily explored before mischief is done by untutored zeal and desultory 
work. 
“ The importance of following up a case of this description has been forced upon my 
attention by some of the results of an examination of the cave-bone collections both in 
England and abroad, in connexion with the investigation of the distribution of the 
extinct Proboscidea in the European Upper-Tertiary deposits. I have during the last 
twelve months been more or less occupied with the conditions under which Elephant 
remains occur in the caves ; and having lately returned from a tour in company with my 
friend the Kev. Kobert Everest, during which we had made a reconnaissance survey of 
the caves in, or cave-collections from, the neighbourhood of Bristol, the Mendips, Devon- 
shire, South Wales, Kirkdale, and Cefn, some of the results have appeared of sufficient 
interest to justify my trespassing on the attention of the Council with this communication. 
Of these I may mention the following : — 
* This manuscript was fortunately recovered by Mr. E. Yiviatt, of Torquay, who, in 1859, published part of 
it together with seventeen of the original plates ; the whole manuscript has since been edited by Mr. Pengelly 
and published in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, 
and Art for 1869. 
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