tion here and there, a brecciated mass composed of large and small pieces of limestone and blocks of the well-known old crystalline stalagmite, all cemented together and covered with a sheet of the cementing material.

Near the upper part of the slope, and on its southern margin, a space about 14 feet long and varying from 3 to 12 feet broad was without any trace of floor, but occupied with large loose pieces of limestone. Elsewhere the sheet was perfectly continuous until reaching the area in which Mr. M'Enery had dug his shaft. The Floor commonly measured from 12 to 30 inches in thickness, but adjacent to the southern wall it was fully 3 feet, and contained few or no stones.

On being broken into small pieces and carefully examined, it was found to contain 2 teeth of Horse, a portion of a jaw, 2 bones, and half of a fractured flint nodule. About 30 feet down the slope, a series of dark parallel lines were observed in the Floor, the uppermost being about 2 inches below the upper surface. On the advance of the work, they proved to be continuous downward, and to have a greater and greater thickness of stalagmite over them. On careful examination, it was found that each represented what for a time had been the upper surface of the Stalagmitic Floor of the Chamber, and was due to the presence of comminuted charcoal and other dark-coloured extraneous matter. Such a "charcoal streak" also occurred, according to Mr. M'Enery, in the "Long Arcade," within a few feet of the same spot*. The workmen were directed to detach a specimen of the Floor where the streaks were well displayed, and in doing so were so fortunate as to make their fracture at a place where a large cockle-shell lay firmly imbedded in the lowest streak, at a depth of about 8 inches below the surface. Whilst splitting up the Stalagmite on May 16th, 1871, two specimens of well-marked fern-impressions were found in it, about 3 inches below the surface. Nothing of the kind had ever been noticed before.

Below the Stalagmite, as usual, lay the Cave-earth, in which, as was anticipated, pieces of limestone were unusually abundant. Some of them reasured several feet in length and breadth, and were fully 2 feet thick. There were also numerous blocks of the old crystalline stalagmite, measuring in some instances upwards of 4 cubic yards, and not unfrequently projecting from the Cave-earth into the overlying granular floor. Though they were carefully broken up, nothing was found in them.

In that portion of the Cave-earth which was found intact, there occurred, as usual, remains of the ordinary Cave-mammals, including about 550 teeth, which may be apportioned as in the following list :

It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that though wild animals still frequent Kent's Hole, and there is reason to believe that some of them have in recent times carried in the bones of others on which they preyed, though the Sloping Chamber is near and between the two high-level Entrances, though the Floor was broken up and thus gave the readiest access to the Cave-earth, and though Mr. M'Enery discontinued his labours upwards of 40 years ago, of which more than 30 were years of quietude in the Cavern, there is in the * See Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. iii. pp. 236, 261, 262 (1869).

foregoing list not only neither Sheep nor Pig, but neither Badger, Rabbit, Hare, nor Vole, all of which have been found in other branches, in deposits accessible to burrowing animals.

In the Cave-earth there were also found 52 flint implements, flakes, and chips,--3 of them in the first or uppermost foot-level, 16 in the second, 15 in the third, and 18 in the fourth or lowest. Though none of them are equal to the best the Cavern has yielded in previous years, there are some good lanceolate implements amongst them.

No. 3693 is of light brown translucent flint, 1.85 inch in length, ⚫9 inch in greatest breadth, 175 inch in greatest thickness, nearly flat on one side, and carinated on the other. It was found with a few bones in the first footlevel, amongst loose stones, where there was no Stalagmitic Floor over it; hence it may be doubted whether it belongs to the Palæolithic series—a doubt strengthened by the modern aspect of the implement.

No. 3754, of the usual white flint, is 4-2 inches long, 9 inch in greatest breadth, 3 inch in greatest thickness, both longitudinally and transversely concave on one side, has a medial ridge on the other, from which, at about an inch from one end, a second ridge proceeds, and has a thin but uneven edge. It was probably pointed at each end, but has unfortunately been broken at one of them. It was found on March the 6th, 1871, in the second foot-level, with splinters of bone, beneath a Stalagmitic Floor 18 inches thick.

No. 5430, also of white flint, is somewhat irregular in form, but may be termed rudely lanceolate; it is 2.7 inches in length, 1.5 inch in extreme breadth, 3 inch in greatest thickness, slightly concave on one face and irregularly convex on the other. It was found on March 30th, 1871, with 2 teeth of Horse, 1 of Hyæna, and fragments of bone, in the second "footlevel," without any Stalagmitic Floor over it.

No. 3732, a whitish flint, is 2-3 inches long, 1·1 inch in breadth, which is nearly uniform from end to end, slightly concave on one face, convex on the other, on which there are three slight, parallel, longitudinal ridges, sharply truncated at both ends, but primarily thin at the sides. It was found on February 27th, 1871, in the third "foot-level," with a tooth of Hyæna and fragments of bone, without any Stalagmitic Floor over it.

No. 5435, a slightly mottled white flint, is 2.1 inches long, 1.1 inch broad, 4 inch in greatest thickness, flat on one face, strongly ridged on the other, abruptly truncated at one end, but thin everywhere else, and retains its width almost to the opposite end, which is bluntly rounded. It was found on 31st March, 1871, with a portion of Deer's jaw and fragments of bone, in the third "foot-level," beneath a Stalagmitic Floor, 2 feet thick.

No. 3687, a mottled flint with white prevailing, is 2.6 inches long, 1.2 inch in greatest breadth, 3 inch in greatest thickness, broadest near the middle, whence it tapers in both directions, somewhat pointed at one end but not at the other, nearly flat on one face and convex on the other, on which there are two ridges-one subcentral and the other nearly marginal. It was found on February 7th, 1871, in the fourth or lowest foot-level, with 1 tooth of Horse, 1 of Hyæna, and a fragment of bone, without any Stalagmitic Floor over it.

No. 5475 so closely resembles No. 3732, mentioned above, as to need no further description. It was found February 27th, 1871, with 1 tooth of Hyæna and fragments of bone, in the fourth "foot-level," but had no Stalagmitic Floor over it.

In this connexion may be mentioned a piece of calcareous spar, which

appears to have been used as a polishing-stone. It was found March 8th, 1871, with 2 teeth of Hyena, 2 of Horse, 3 of Rhinoceros, gnawed bones, and a flint flake, in the fourth "foot-level," having over it a Stalagmitic Floor 18 inches thick. No such specimen had been noticed before.

A piece of burnt bone was found on the 22nd of the same month, with fragments of bone and fæcal matter, in the second "foot-level," having a Stalagmitic Floor over it.

Mr. M'Enery appears to have excavated beyond the limits of his shaft, not only in an easterly direction, as has been already stated, but also, at least, north and south of it. So far as can be determined, the shaft was first sunk, and the material taken out lodged between it and the western wall of the Chamber, after which he undertook what may be called the adjacent horizontal diggings, and filled up the shaft with a portion of the excavated matter, thereby rendering it impossible to determine the exact site of the shaft itself. He does not appear to have taken outside the Cavern any portion of the deposit in order to ensure its more complete examination; hence it is not probable that all its contents were detected. Indeed, when speaking of his researches in this Chamber, he says, "It was feared that in the ardour of the first search, facts of importance might have been overlooked. The mass of mould thrown up on the former occasion was therefore a second time turned over and carefully searched, but nothing new was brought to light "*.

This mass the Superintendents decided on taking out of the Cavern, partly to facilitate the excavation of deposits certainly intact beyond, and also because it was thought likely to be lodged on unbroken ground. Though there seemed but little prospect of finding any thing by subjecting it to a third search, such a search was nevertheless made, and did not go unrewarded. The heap, though mainly of Cave-earth, included fragments of the granular Stalagmitic Floor and portions of the Black Mould, and yielded hundreds of bones and portions of bones (one having an artificial hole lined with stalagmitic matter), fragments of antlers, the largest fragment of an Elephant's tusk that the Committee have met with, 143 teeth of Hyæna, 153 of Horse, 45 of Rhinoceros, 27 of Deer, including "Irish Elk" and Reindeer, 6 of Bear, 5 of Ox, 5 of Sheep, 3 of Elephant, 3 of Wolf, 3 of Dog (?), 2 of Fox, 2 of Pig, and 1 of Lion, a few marine shells, several fragments of black pottery, 4 pieces of stalagmite with fern-impressions, and 13 flint implements and flakes,-all, with one exception, of the prevalent white colour, and two of them decidedly good specimens of the strongly ridged lanceolate forms. In short, the virgin soil, in some parts of the Cavern, has been less productive than was this mass which had been twice carefully searched, but by candle-light only.

As was thought probable, the mass of dislodged materials proved to be lying on ground which had never been broken. Between Mr. M'Enery's shaft and the west wall of the Chamber there was a space of at least 17 feet; and at 14 feet from the wall the Cave-earth was found to have not only the ordinary granular Stalagmitic Floor overlying it, but to be deposited on another and necessarily an older Floor of the same material, but which, instead of being granular, was made up of prismatic crystals-possessing, in short, the characters both of position and structure of the Old Crystalline Floor found in the "Lecture Hall" and "South-west Chamber," and described in the Fourth Report (Norwich, 1868),—a remnant, in situ, of the Floor which had furnished the large blocks of stalagmite found in the Cave

*See Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. iii. p. 289 (1869).

earth in the Sloping Chamber, as already stated. From the point where it was first seen, it was everywhere continuous up to the western wall. Its thickness has not been ascertained; for though it was partially broken up in cutting the four-feet section, the bottom of it was not reached. No objects of any kind were found in it. Had Mr. M'Enery's excavations been carried but a yard further west he must have encountered it, and would have been enabled to solve the problem of the blocks which he so often found in the Caveearth.

The Committee are most anxious to guard against the impression that, in any of the foregoing remarks, they have been unmindful of the service which Mr. M'Enery rendered to science, or have the most remote wish to depreciate the value of his long-continued labours. Indeed, when they remember that the means at his disposal must have been very limited, and that he was amongst the pioneers in cavern searching, they cannot but feel that the extent and results of his investigations are richly entitled to the warmest praise.

They venture, however, to take this opportunity of stating that, in order to a thorough and satisfactory investigation, cavern-deposits should be excavated, not by sinking occasional shafts, but continuously in a horizontal direction, to a uniform depth not exceeding 5 or at most 6 feet at first; that the material should be carefully examined in situ, and then taken to daylight for re-examination. Through not following the first, Mr. M'Enery failed to understand the exact historical order of the Cavern-deposits; and through not being able to accomplish the second, he passed over many specimens calculated to have modified his conclusions, and which he would have been delighted to have found. For example, when speaking of the Sloping Chamber, he says, "The [Stalagmitic] crust is thickest in the middle. for opening the excavation, the same means were employed as to break up a mass of ancient masonry. Flint blades were detected in it at all depths, even so low as to come in contact with the fossil bones and their earthy matrix, but never below them" *. During the last six months, however, the excavations made in the same Chamber, and in the immediate neighbourhood of his, have brought forth Flint implements from every level of the Cave-earth to which the work has been carried, and they were actually found in greatest numbers in the lowest levels. To this may be added the fact that in his heap of refuse-matter, which he had twice examined, there were, as has been already said, upwards of a dozen flint blades, such as he stated never occurred in the Cave-earth. Had the soil been examined in daylight, they could not have been overlooked; for, instead of being specimens of little value, they are better far than some of those which he figured; and it is but right to add that many of those found by the Committee were thus detected.

Again, Mr. M'Enery was keenly watchful for extraneous objects in the Stalagmitic Floor; and, from his silence on the question, it may be safely concluded that he never saw fern-impressions in it; nevertheless his refuseheap contained four small slabs of the floor, in each of which was a well-marked impression, requiring not additional manipulation, but simple daylight for their detection. Indeed every specimen of this kind has been recognized outside the Cavern only.

The four slabs just mentioned, as well as the two found by the Committee in the Floor they broke up, have been submitted to Mr. W. Carruthers,

*See Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. iii. p. 247 (1869).

F.R.S., of the British Museum, who has kindly furnished the following note respecting them :

"British Museum, 10 July, 1871.

"The ferns are specimens of Pteris aquilina, Linn., and have belonged to very luxuriant plants; they do not differ from those now growing in England. It is possible that the fragment may be another species, but it is too imperfect to determine, and it may only be a barren portion of the Pteris, with shorter and broader pinnules than the other specimens.

(Signed) "WM. CARRUTHERS."

Returning for a moment to the Old Crystalline Stalagmitic Floor beneath the Cave-earth, it was observed that, like the modern and granular one, it had here and there on its upper surface conical bosses rising above its general level, and that there were corresponding protuberances vertically above them on the upper floor. The same fact had been noticed in the other branches of the Cavern where the two Floors occurred in the same vertical sections, a fact apparently warranting the conclusion that the drainage through the Cavern-roof underwent no important change during the entire period represented by the two floors and the intervening Cave-earth. When to this it is added that such bosses are, at least in most cases, vertically beneath Stalactitic pendants on the ceiling, it may be further inferred that the ancient and modern lines of drainage are, in the main, identical.

On the completion of the work in the Sloping Chamber, on July 11, 1871, the excavation of the "Wolf's Den," which opens out of its northern side, was begun. It was in this Den that Mr. M'Enery found the canines of Machairodus latidens, which have excited so much attention. No such specimens have been met with during the present investigation up to this time.

The Committee, believing it possible that the subject might prove to be connected with their researches, have from time to time mentioned the -occasional occurrence of living animals in the Cavern*. Indeed, Kent's Hole is not better known to the paleontologist as a store-house of mammalian remains, than to the Devonshire naturalist as a home of the Great Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum, Leach); and every visitor, before the present exploration, must have frequently seen them hanging from the walls of the more retired branches. The following facts have presented themselves during the last twelve months ::

Whilst the excavation of one of the lateral branches of Smerdon's Passage was in progress, a considerable number of fresh spindle-shaped fæces, about 6 inch long and 2 inch thick, were observed lying on the surface of the Cave-earth, while between it and the roof there was an interspace just sufficient to allow an animal about the size of a Badger to pass.

The workmen having observed that the candles were much nibbled during their absence, that the greasy wooden candlesticks were sometimes carried off and some of them, after a few days, found secreted in small holes, set a suitably baited gin for the suspected offender. Their efforts were rewarded the next morning by finding a rat dead in the trap.

Old newspapers &c. are occasionally sent to the Cavern for the purpose of wrapping up small boxes of specimens, or such delicate objects as need more than ordinary care. On November 28th, 1871, the workmen, using in this way a part of a copy of the Saturday Review,' unintentionally left one complete and sound sheet, i. e. two leaves, near the spot where they had been at work.

* See Reports Brit. Assoc. 1869, p. 204, and 1870, p. 27.