566 
EEPOET ON THE EXPECTATION OP BEIXHAM CATE. 
as theirs to have carried him safely through the deep and narrow recesses of such a 
cave as that of Brixham ; for it is to he noted that although the larger proportion of 
flint implements were found near the entrances where a glimmer of light might pene- 
trate*, still a few were found 30 and 50 feet (and in one case as many as 74 feet) from 
the nearest external entrance, where little if any light could penetrate ; and there is no 
evidence of early man having been acquainted with the use of fire. 
The view we have suggested with respect to the early condition of Brixham Cave is one 
also in unison with the other phenomena of the cave, which, from the evidence we have 
now gone through, points, we conceive, to the following conclusions. In the first instance, 
some small watercourses, draining a small upland tract of Devonian slates and shales 
situated between the site of the cave and the valley of the Dart, emptied themselves 
and were lost, as is common now in limestone districts, in the narrow fissures or open 
joints of the limestone rocks. These were the channels along which were transported 
the worn and rolled shingle derived from those rocks and which were deposited along 
the bottom of the cave, forming bed No. 4. As the fissures in the limestone could but 
have been on the level at which these streams flowed, the valley of Brixham and its 
tributaries, which then as now formed the channels of drainage of the district, must 
have been from 70 to 80 feet less deep than at present. 
It would seem that the stream originally entered the cave by the West Chamber f 
and escaped through the north entrance, and perhaps in part through the Steep Slide 
Hole — the sea-level being then probably the one marked by the old raised beach, which 
would show that the land then stood about 30 feet lower than at present. After filling 
the lower part of the fissures with shingle, the prolonged action of the stream wore and 
expanded the upper part of them into the wider passages at present constituting the 
cave, and finally nearly filled them with shingle. The lower wall-grooves ( b b) may have 
formed before the shingle had choked up the cave, when, in fact, the stream was in full 
force, and the upper one {a a) at a later period, when the current was more impeded, 
and when, judging from the level of the old stalagmite floor, the shingle had found an 
exit through the north entrance. The traces of a reverse or inward dip of the wall- 
grooves between the road entrance and the Steep Slide Hole may be due to the influx 
of the flood-waters at a later period. During this period, when the streams were low 
or dry, the cave was resorted to, on a few rare occasions, by animals to devour their 
prey ; but at this time they cannot be traced far beyond the entrance — in no case more 
than 36 feet in the Reindeer Gallery, and, in the Flint-knife Gallery, to 25 feet from the 
west entrance. In the same way we recognize the restricted presence of man, in the 
two flint implements found at a distance of 34 feet from the north entrance, and the 
two within 7 feet of the west entrance. 
After the cave had become choked with shingle, the stream, either from that cause 
or from the deepening of the channels outside, kept more in the main valley, and a period 
* The first 16 feet was then, however, an open fissure. 
f The openings in the South Chamber may also have given passage to a stream. 
