476 
EEPOET ON THE EXPLOEATION OE BEIXHAM CAVE. 
and arranged and tabulated all the specimens found in the Cave, devoting to the inves- 
tigation an amount of care and time without which it would have been impossible for 
the London Committee to have obtained the exact record which is now submitted to 
the Society. 
A satisfactory lease of the Cave having been obtained, the services of Mr. Keeping, 
the experienced fossil collector of the Isle of Wight, were secured, and the work com- 
menced on the 14th July, 1858. The plan of operations laid down by the Committee 
was progressively to break up and examine the stalagmite floor throughout, and to explore 
successively and separately each bed beneath it. In this manner it was considered that 
the succession of beds and the precise position and association of the organic remains 
would be best determined. 
In the course of the summer the cave was visited by several members of the London 
Committee, and in September 1858 the work had so far advanced that the following 
Report was drawn up by Dr. Falconer, in conjunction with Professor Ramsay and 
Mr. Pengelly. 
“ Report of Progress in the Cave. 
“ Having lately made a joint inspection of the ‘Windmill Hill Cavern ’ at Brixham, 
we think it may be of interest to the London Committee to know our opinion of the 
progress already made in the excavations, and of the probable prospective results. We 
examined the cavern in company with Mr. Pengelly, F.G.S., under whose zealous 
superintendence the operations are conducted, and of Dr. John Percy, F.R.S., who 
during his residence at Torquay has taken an active and lively interest in the explora- 
tion. Most of the points to be discussed in the sequel were freely discussed among 
us, and there was but little difference of opinion as to the bearing of the observations 
and the best plan of carrying on the work for the future. 
[Then follows first an account of the extent and structure of the cave, so far as then explored, with a sketch 
ground-plan by Professor Ramsay. The later surveys and fuller description render it unnecessary to repeat this 
preliminary description. See Paleontological Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 492.] 
“ Regarded in a general way, the Brixham Cave may be considered as partaking of the 
tunnel character of the Kirkdale Cave in the ‘ Flint-knife Gallery,’ and of the fissure 
character of Kent’s Hole and the Gower Caves in the ‘Reindeer Gallery.’ No vertical 
flues ascending towards the summit of the cliff have as yet been detected in the explored 
parts, such as were found in the Oreston Cave and in Paviland. 
“ 2. Workings . — The conduct of the excavations was consigned by the London Com- 
mittee to Mr. Prestwich and Mr. Pengelly. The Committee, fully impressed with the 
probability of remains of different periods being met with at the different levels in the 
cavern floor, determined from the outset on working the upper deposits horizontally 
inwards, as far as might be practicable, on the same horizon, and then of working the 
lower deposits successively in the same manner. In this manner they considered that 
they would avoid the risk of confounding the remains of different levels, which is apt 
