496 
EEPORT ON THE EXPLORATION OE BRIXHAM CAVE. 
IV. Mr. Bristow’s Notes on his Survey of the Cave. 
After describing the locality and stating that certain lines on the plan represent the 
floor of the cave as it existed at the time of his visit (i. e. after the removal of the bone- 
bed and part of the shingle bed), and other lines the top and bottom of the bone-bed and 
of the top of the stalagmite floor, Mr. Bristow proceeds to say that the “ longitudinal 
sections through the two principal Galleries (Reindeer Gallery and the Flint-knife 
Gallery, Plate XLIII. figs. 1 & 2) afford a good idea of the general arrangement of the 
contents of the cave, while the cross sections (A to II) serve to show, in addition, the 
peculiar shapes into which the galleries have been worn out of the rock. 
“ The lower part of the cave, from the base of the bone-bed to the floor, and to as 
great a depth as any explorations have been extended, consists of a reddish-brown clay 
or loam, containing rounded pebbles of quartz, rounded fragments of the slate rocks of 
the district, &c., precisely similar in character and appearance to those forming the raised 
beaches visible on the neighbouring coast, as well as to the shingle on the shore of 
Mudstone sands, north of Brixham. 
“ Immediately overlying the pebble bed is the deposit in which numerous bones have 
been discovered, and which has in consequence received the name of ‘ the bone-bed.’ 
“ It may be divided into three divisions : — 
“ The lower part, in which the supposed flint knives were met with, and also the 
greater portion of the bones which have been found, is a ferruginous brown-coloured 
loam or clay with included angular fragments of limestone, some of which are of con- 
siderable dimensions. 
“ There is no appearance of any symmetrical arrangement of the materials forming 
this bed, both the upper and the under surfaces of which are very uneven and irregular, 
forming undulations and filling up hollows or depressions in the upper part of the sub- 
jacent pebble bed. 
“ For some distance from the entrance (33 or 34 feet) a dark-coloured deposit rests 
upon the bed just noticed ; it is composed of small angular fragments of limestone, 
with a white powder imbedded in a brown loamy base. From the circumstance of its 
being darkly stained with carbonaceous matter (apparently), the name ‘Charcoal-bed’ 
has been conferred upon it ; its thickness is very variable. 
“ An accumulation called the ‘ white angular limestone,’ in consequence of its being 
made up of broken angular fragments of limestone imbedded in a white mortar-like 
cement, rests immediately upon the charcoal-bed, and forms the upper part of the deposit 
containing the bones. 
“ When the cave was first discovered its present entrance was concealed by a rubbly 
talus of limestone, which formed a conglomerate in places, and covered the true bone- 
beds, as is shown at the northern end of the longitudinal section (Plate XLIII. fig. 1). 
“ For about the first 19 feet from the entrance the rock forming the roof was divided 
by a fissure, the space being filled up with a mass of rubbly limestone, similar to that 
already described as blocking up the mouth of the cave. 
