96 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
chambers, and subterranean corridors. The task was 
one beyond its means. In 1864, Pengelly induced 
the British Association to take up the work. From 
1864 to 1880 nearly ;^2000 was spent on the work, 
and although 50,000 fossil specimens were excavated, 
cleaned, identified and labelled, the Herculean task of 
exploring Kent's Cavern is little more than begun. ^ 
The upper strata of the floor are the same as at 
Brixham — a surface earth containing traces of all 
cultures from Neolithic down to the present." Below 
the superficial debris came : (i) the upper stalagmite, 
in some places 3 feet thick ; then (2) the red cave 
earth, 3 to 5 feet thick, with bones of extinct animals 
and Palaeolithic implements. Beneath the cave earth 
began a second and older series of deposits, commenc- 
ing with (3) the lower stratum of stalagmite, covering 
(4) a great depth of breccia, composed of chips of 
sandstone and slate firmly cemented together. The 
lower or older deposits contain evidences of early 
human cultures which do not concern us at present. 
The upper strata, however, have a direct interest 
for us because they belong to the time of the later 
phases of Palaeolithic culture. In the upper stalag- 
mite, and in the upper layer of cave earth, just under 
the stalagmite, were found implements in bone and stone 
worked in the last Palaeolithic phase — the Magdalenian 
— the same culture as characterised the cave at Cheddar. 
In 1867, Mr Pengelly found the right half of a 
human palate, with four teeth still in place, at a depth 
of 20 inches ('500 m.) in the upper stalagmite. The 
palate lay unnoticed in its museum case at Torquay 
until 19 12, when my friend, Dr W. L. H. Duckworth, 
> See a Memoir on William Pengelly, F.R.S., by his daughter, Mrs 
Forbes Julian, London, 1897. 
^ I am much indebted to the late Mr Arthur R. Hunt and other members 
of the Torquay Natural History Society for information regarding the 
exploration of Kent's Cavern, and for opportunities of seeing the collections 
in their museum. See Mr Hunt's papers on Kent's Cavern in Geoloj^ical 
Magasi}U\ 1902, vol. ix. p. 114 ; P7-oc. of Geologists Assoc, 1900, vol. xvi. 
p. 425 ; Joiirn. Torquay Nat. Hist. Soc, 1914, vol. i. p. 267. Also a short 
account of Kent's Cavern, Torquay, 1898. 
