560 
REPORT ON THE EXPLORATION OE BRIXHAM GAVE. 
but it is to be observed that some of the bones of the larger mammals have also a very 
recent aspect. 
With the appearance in the cave of the smaller common rodents now living in this 
country, we have to note a remarkable exception, that of the Lemming ( Lagomys 
spelceus)*. At the same time it is also evident that a certain number of the older cave- 
animals, including the Reindeer, Ox, Horse, Roebuck, and Bear, and possibly the 
Mammoth, lived on to a comparatively late period in the history of the cave, as their 
remains were found in several instances in and upon the stalagmite floor, the deposition 
of which marks the period when the main entrances into the Brixham Cave were 
finally closed by falling debris to all except the smaller burrowing animals and a few 
bones introduced through fissures opening on the surface. 
Although no line of demarcation in the fauna can be drawn from the accidental 
occurrence of the stalagmite floor, which seems due to favourable circumstances rather 
than confined to any particular period, still it is to be noted that the smaller and 
common animals do not appear till at a late period in the history of the cave, and when 
the deposition of the cave-earth had almost or entirely ceased. Did this arise from 
their more recent introduction into the district 1 to a change in the climatal condition 
and the dying out of the larger Mammalia'? or was it (as we think more probable) 
merely a circumstance dependent chiefly upon the cave becoming drier, more closed up, 
and less resorted to by the larger animals 1 
Some doubt must always attach to the determination of the relative antiquity of the 
cave-remains, owing to the several possible causes of disturbance, whether by physical 
operations which rearranged the contents of the cave, or by the agency of animals or of 
man producing local displacements. It is well known that fragments and pebbles of an 
older stalagmite floor are sometimes found in the beds below the existing compact sta- 
lagmite now forming the floor, and also that portions of an old stalagmite floor are some- 
times found attached to the sides of the cave in a higher position than the existing bed 
of stalagmite. Schmerling, in his account of the caves of the neighbourhood of Liege, 
describes several instances of the former, and the latter your Reporter has noticed in 
the celebrated “ Grotte D’Arcy,” near Auxerre. In this case the under surface of the 
stalagmite was coated with pebbles. Mr. Pengelly records precisely similar facts as 
part of the phenomena of the Brixham Cave. Now it is evident that this could not 
have taken place without a large remodelling of the contents of the caves. In the first 
place, the caves were filled to a much greater height than at present with shingle, and 
this shingle was directly covered by a bed of stalagmite. To have broken up this bed, 
to have removed part, or lowered the whole mass, of shingle, and to have worn the 
broken fragments of the stalagmite into pebbles, indicates a considerable disturbance, 
such as, if any organic remains existed in that portion of the bed which was so disturbed, 
would have removed them from their original position, and subjected them to more or less 
* This circumstance tends to give a greater antiquity to a portion of the smaller remains than from their 
condition and position we might have been disposed to assign to them. ,, 
